The largest marine aquarium on the east coast of Africa will be built in Malindi in Kenya. The Kenyan government in the person of the president of the Parliamentary Commission for Tourism and Wildlife, Kareke Mbiuki, member of Parliament, during a press conference at the Malindi Marine Park presented a project worth around 700 thousand euros to establish the first Center in Malindi marine research facility of Kenya.
The aquarium is part of the redevelopment project of the town of Malindi Marine City overlooking the Indian Ocean, commissioned by the government of the African state and financed with the help of the British government and the World Bank. The marine aquarium project which will cost around 300 thousand euros represents an important opportunity to safeguard Kenyan fish fauna as explained by marine scientist Mohamed Omar, who also added that “Kenya is losing a lot to foreign countries and that paradoxically some of the fish species in some foreign aquariums, such as the famous one in Dubai, were purchased in Kenya.The aquarium will also serve as a search and rescue center for marine life as Kenya has variety of marine life that aren’t being studied. We have so many fish that haven’t been studied yet and having an aquarium here will help us keep them for study and then release them back into the waters.“
Inspections have begun to understand where to start the construction works which will certainly be on the seafront, in the area where the redevelopment works were already started a few years ago and have given rise to an amusement and recreation park and a collection and sorting center of fish for the community of fishermen of Malindi.
(Source: MalindiKenya.net)