Aquatika Becomes a Place Where Content Surpasses Form, and Investment of EU Funds Gains Meaning

According to what has been achieved in the space of Aquatika-Freshwater Aquarium Karlovac since its opening on October 22, 2016, the investment of 36.7 million kuna for its creation, of which the non-repayable share from EU funds amounted to 36.2 million kuna, seems justified and promising. Even if, after the first five years of the designated non-commercial business model, the City digs deeper into its budget to cover all eligible operating costs of Aquatika, the advancement of Aquatika and its affirmation as a venue for various events, often entirely unrelated to aquaristics and ichthyology in the narrower sense, will be a sufficient argument to grant it a special status among budgetary expenditure items.

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The most recent example of the value of Aquatika as a multidisciplinary and multimedia space occurred on Friday evening with the presentation of the book “Freshwater Fish of Aquatika” by Goran Jakšić, an employee of Aquatika, who received excellent support from poet and dramatic artist Enes Kišević in a full hall of Aquatika.

The connection between Goran Jakšić, a physicist who earned a doctorate, as a passionate fisherman and nature lover, in the field of ichthyology and the biology that accompanies it, and poet Enes Kišević was the poetry with which Jakšić described his fascination with nature, especially rivers and other waterways and the life that unfolds within them since his early youth.

Absorbing all this earthly natural heritage, Jakšić opened the book, in the manner of a true physicist, with a statement about the “Big Bang” as an still undefined phenomenon in the creation of the universe, and thus also the almost incomprehensible (but today theoretically very explainable) forces that led to the creation of chemical elements, about the physical relationships among subatomic particles that over time created both molecular and biological conditions for the development of life, and everything that makes up this world, including that which is hidden in the aquatic realm.

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Of course, Jakšić left room in such a context for worldview discussions about the beginning and emergence of life, looking at the audience in the front row, including Mayor Damir Mandić, a graduate theologian, and alongside numerous interesting facts from fish life, poet Enes Kišević suggestively connected his poetic experience inspired by rivers and the life they conceal, with his boyhood experiences and coexistence with fish.

Proudly and passionately speaking about his upbringing in a poor family and environment, Kišević also described the technological aspects of his fishing achievements at a time when nylon threads were not available.

– To create about twenty meters of thread, I had to pull out at least twenty strands from our horse’s tail, while trying to keep all my teeth intact, as it was not at all pleasant for the horse, and part of that knowledge was how to avoid being kicked by the horse. Then I tied all those strands into a long thread and immediately went fishing in the nearby river. I admire the fish because it was not easy to outsmart and catch a fish… But, as I was persistent, I brought home five to six kilos of fish every day, feeding both my family and the neighboring families. I can say, literally, that in all our general poverty, we at least ate like royalty back then, said Kišević, especially praising the lyrics of Goran Jakšić.

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According to the director Margarite Maruškić Kulaš, Aquatika has already become a gathering place for visitors of various profiles through a series of activities, from educating students and pupils, focusing on environmental care, to events such as “Museum Night” with performances by interesting “off-art” performers, Open Days of EU projects, as well as various seminars and workshops of various economic entities.

Goran Jakšić, as an employee of Aquatika, is already significantly contributing to the affirmation of Aquatika as a scientific-research polygon in the field of fish biology research, such as studies on the impact of foreign invasive species of fish and crustaceans in Croatian waterways or examining in aquarium conditions the possibilities of spawning certain species, and potential opportunities for their reintroduction into Croatian waterways from which they have disappeared due to foolish concepts of hydroelectric power plant construction.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Aquatika has been awarded as the best national project at the “Bled Water Festival,” which is primarily dedicated to raising public awareness about the importance of water and its protection on a global level.