Updated on June 16, 2019
Hiking to Monte Faito
On the morning of May 22nd, our backpacks filled with a bottle of water, a sandwich and fruit were ready for our excursion to 1,131 meters of altitude on Mount Faito! But don’t worry before you start our “little” walk, for some it was their first time, we crossed clouds and forests inside a funicular.
At the exit of the funicular we started our journey at the top of Mount Faito… did you know that the name of this mountain comes from a derivative of the trees that grow there? (beechwood = faggeta (Italian)). A question was asked, how can we find this richness in vegetation here. If you look at the soil closer, you will notice that it is made up of limestone and friable rocks, all this substrate comes from an important natural element: Vesuvius. The eruptions and ashes allowed the soil to feed a natural wonder that is this forest.
Before reaching the top of the mountain, we spoke about some interesting facts! During the winter the old population preserve large quantities of ice to finally resell it in summer to the richest people who lived in their villas at the foot of the mountain. Continuing our journey we arrived under a cave where the fresh water coming out of the mountain was “sacred” (really) but something else captivated our attention, it was an endemic plant because we find it only here and it had the particularity of being carnivorous!
After 1h30 of climbing, we reach the top, slightly disappointed because the clouds didn’t allow us from admiring the landscape… We decided to have our meal but the place was filled with flies, and our Laura was so scared. Half an hour later the clouds disappeared and here we were, an incredible 360-degree landscape, an exceptional panorama.
From there you could see the entire Sorrento golf, as far away as Naples via Vesuvius and as close as Castellammare. Here you could feel a sense of guilt and sadness about the gap you could see, a peaceful and unfortunately not very frequented nature compared to the active city at the foot of the mountain. Sadness because not enough people realised the luck they have to leave there. This excursion was a real experience to live in all directions and for me a bit of nostalgia because the landscape remind me the mountains of Réunion Island.
On the way back we split into two groups and the most reckless ones took the longest path, in order to continue to flourish from this beautiful nature. Even if we were with our mentor who is a tour guide we still had this strange feeling of not knowing where to go… But without too much worry we arrive at the bottom of the mountain exhausted after these 3 hours of descent. We took the bus to the city of Vico Equense where some of us began to sleep and dream of ice cream and pizzas…
Updated on June 16, 2019
Climate Strike: Activity in Sorrento
In the 24th of may people of all around the world joined the World Climate Strike. According to event organizers Fridays for Future, over 1664 cities across 125 countries registered strike actions. To these numbers, we have also to add the small events that weren’t registered.
We could not let this important day go away without doing something and, as we had a special help of our past MARElinis and friends, we move our “5 Impacts Table” to Piazza Veniero, in Sorrento. We started organising all of the space for the activity, trying to catch some attentions on the street. While something was happening on the spot, in the main street of Sorrento, some Builders, Fishermen, the Global Warming, Invasive species, … were trying to invite people to join this activity. In reality, we were just preparing our restaurant under the sea!
A table was prepared with some marine organisms on it. After that, the customers were welcomed to enter and seat by a sad Chef, later on you are going to understand why he was sad…The people seated and the show started!
“Welcome to our restaurant “Rifrutti di Mare”. Now, you are not a person anymore, but the marine animal that I gave to you.”
“What do you want to order? Hum… Ms. Turtle, I think that you would like to have a plate full of jellyfishes.” – the waiter arrived.
“Sorry, but unfortunately there is some plastic bags mixed with your food, that we can not separate.”
And a sea current full of marine litter and no more clean and fresh water arrived to the table…
With this marine litter problem, we also have another biggest problem that are impacting our oceans in an extreme velocity… A warm current, at the same time with a cold current, arrived!
“I’m sorry, but we don’t know what is happening with this weather, sometimes it’s really warm, and we have to move to colder places, other times it’s really cold and we move again. But, in reality, we don’t have colder places, as we had some years ago, anymore. The percentage of ice is decreasing and me, as I’m an Orca, I don’t know where I can go, where I can eat, my life just changed. Or I will find a solution, or I’ll die.”
But… this climate change is also good to move species, species that went out from their places and go to invade another. Nowadays, the problematic of invasive species is really related with the changes on the temperature and the capacity that those species, usually stronger than the endemic ones, have to invade an entire ecosystem and put the others in troubles. Some of them can take a ride in the marine litter, that is moving with the currents, an easy way to reach new places. – a Spanish Lobster arrived to invade the Italian ecosystem.
“Hola! El clima aquí es tan bueno. Tengo tanta comida a disposición que puedo alimentar a mí ya toda mi familia. Voy a invitarlos a mudarse aquí.” (Hi! The weather here is so good. There is a lot of food for me and for all of my family. I’m going to invite them to leave Spain and come to leave here.)
After the whole Spanish family invaded Italy, the Fishermen found a new food resource and started to throw nets everywhere to make a lot of money. However, they fished not only the invasive Spanish Lobster, but also a lot species that have been signalised in danger of extinction, as tuna and dolphins, for example.
“I’m going to be rich and give food to all of my family. I know that the Spanish Lobster is not enough good, but with some illegal captures, I can make a looooot of money! And, dolphins?! Who cares about them?! They are just beautiful and nice for tourism. Furthermore, with this money, I can build a luxury house on the sea!” – the Builders men arrived.
“Sorry Octopus, Anemone, Barnacle and Shark, you have to move from here because my client paid me a huge amount of money to built a luxury hotel. Ah… and say to your friends, after this, I’m going 5 nautical miles out from here because important people found a place where we can extract a big quantity of petroleum. But, I know that you are not going to have enough time to find a new home and move, so… Sorry again, but this is our last conversation!”
All of the 5 IMPACTS (Marine Litter, Climate Change, Invasive Species, Overfishing and Habitat Destruction) arrived together to the sea restaurant creating a giant chaos! It’s important to remember, the impacts on the oceans don’t act independently, they are together creating these chaos and, sometimes, they unite their forces and make even greater damage (cumulative effect).
Nowadays, there are an increasing number of people that are helping the environment combating these problems, at least, the problems that people can help. – some Special people came on the scene and the Chef started to remember the old times.
“I remember when I could give to my clients all the food that they want, without being disturbed during their meal. The currents brought fresh and clean water, with a lot of organisms without plastic, the weather was more certain, we knew when was summer and when was winter…” – the table started to be clean, the Chef started to smiling and the sadness went away.
“Mrs. Fisherman, you have to have more attention with the animals that you fish. We now that the resources in the oceans are changing, but we can find some solutions to you don’t lost money. We know that you know the sea better than no one, we can bring people to you, as a guided tour, and you can explain your job and how the oceans changed from your childhood until now.”
The Fisherman started to change the way how he was fishing and with his new activity, has enough money for his family. The Builders men started to realise that something was changing and they feel the pressure to also change their activity. They looked to their plan and to the map and found some places where they can build structures for renewable energy, to transform the energy of the waves into electrical energy, but also some structures to help these Special people cleaning the marine litter that are invading our oceans.
These Special people is known by MARElinis and they did or do part of an EVS program called Project M.A.R.E. with the main aim of protecting the environment involving other people and try to explain them the importance of the activities that they are doing since 2013 until now.
If you could be part of this activity that we made in Sorrento, we hope that you enjoyed it and we promise that this one was just the beginning! If you couldn’t be there, in our facebook you can have an updated of the activities that we are going to do.
Updated on June 16, 2019
Cooking pizza together
Wet as mice, we knocked on the door and Simonas sparkling: “Welcome!” made us feel like home. We were surprised by Simonas nephews and family, expecily little Daniel who ran into my arms, not even caring about my wet jacket. He took my hand and pulled me all over the house to show me his favourite toys and his brothers. After that, I officially promised to myself that I will learn Italian.
When I joined the trombulling crowd in the kitchen (after Simona had saved me from her little nephews), rock and roll was on and pizzas started to get the shape we all know and love (of course we screwed up the first one: no worries – we fixed it and made a good calzone!) MARE project friends and volunteers slowly started to arrive and the feast could start!
Also getting to know better the old volontiers of MARE project was a special experience for all of us. We finally saw the young people that everybody was talking about. And they are exactly what we been told… Warm, inventive, interested in many different fields, but the most important of all – friends and great support in our journey.
As the time was passing by, little by little we started to be more relaxed and open in our conversations, because they also had went through this experience as well. So who can better advise you than them? They all were struggling with the same things: italian language, distance from family and native their culture. Some of them more, some of them less, just like us.
With vine, good music, delicious food and a great company we shared our experiences and the idea of “MARE nest” was born. An idea to find a way to preserve photos, videos, and contacts for the future. More information about this a little bit later. Now, back to the pizzas.
One by one, we were testing our skills as the pizza chef with a little help of our hosts the pizzas ended up very well. The dough was made perfectly, so making pizzas was easy. The catch is: The dough needs to be thin and hold all the ingredients, but also strong enough to not break down while you are putting it in and taking it out from the oven.
Vegetarian Pizza 
Pizza 4 cheese 
Pizza in the wood oven 
Our Calzone
With full stomachs, we spent some time chit chatting, playing with the kids and just enjoying the beautiful garden of our hosts. We made some photos to remember this wonderful sunday. Time flies, my friends…
Writted by Lidija Pribelja
Updated on June 16, 2019
Ieranto Open Day
The past Saturday 25th of May, an open day was organized in Ieranto. On this occasion we were with last year’s volunteers… we were sure that the day was going to be beautiful!
To get to Ieranto, we had to do a 45-minute path full of plants, flowers, rocks and wonderful views… we arrived finally at the bay, unbelievable! It was not possible to still believe that this place will be our office during the summer.
Because of the emotion (the heat !!) we could not wait to jump into the water. So, before starting the activities, we took a small bath jumping from the platform that is there. Very refreshing !!!
We started with some really beautiful speeches from the other volunteers, they gave us advices on how to live our experience as much as possible. The essential thing is to love the work we do, feeling like a part of the environment, not giving up and, at the same time, learning and educating.
On this day, we invited people who were there to go kayaking and snorkeling with us. A ride on the Bay, discovering all the beauty it has. Caves, organisms under water…
That day we also went to a public meeting at the Visitor Center of the Marine Protected Area of Punta Campanella in Massa Lubrense. The mystery of the “jelly balls” and other sightings with Roberto Sandulli of the Parthenope University. After a lot of time of discussing, he found that It was a squid ovary case. It was very interesting!
Although we talked about the Marine Park initiative to promote Citizen Science, when citizens become researchers. In fact, everyone can contribute to research by sharing data, photos and videos of particular environmental situations. Punta Campanella has created a special site, https://www.citizensciencepc.org, where it is possible to send various kinds of reports: sightings of rare or valuable species, environmental emergencies …
In the end, we meet to cook and have dinner together! Another perfect day of M.A.R.E. meeting!
Updated on June 7, 2019
The Park from the eyes of our intern Sara
These first few days at the MPA of Punta Campanella have been insightful and exhilarating. I began my role here by researching what exactly a Marine Protected Area means, specifically focusing on MPA’s in the United States to compare. I then got to learn more about the MPA here in Ieranto Bay and the groups that work together to protect it. Under the Marine Protected Area of Punta Campanella there is Project M.A.R.E. (Marine Adventures Respecting the Environment), which is made up of a group of ESC volunteers (European Solidarity Corps, funded by European Commission to involve youngsters in active citizenship through cultural exchanges). Lead by Domenico Sgambati (Mimi), it is a diverse group from various places across Europe and Africa that are here for 9 months to participate in multiple initiatives. These activities include park monitoring and data collection, public info and awareness, beach cleanings, census of marine life, guided tours, and more. There is a cycle between park monitoring to ensure proper behavior within the MPA, conservation plans to find the best way to go about protecting the ecosystem present, and awareness with the people to understand the importance of marine life preservation. Overall, the goal is to create a connection between the people and the sea.
Park Management
The park is divided into 3 zones (A, B, and C). The A zone is the most restricted area, where only
authorized scientific research, service activities, and guided diving are the only things allowed. These areas are small zones and are mostly there to promote the spillover effect. This is when there is a movement of organisms from such marine reserves to surrounding fishing grounds. Fish will grow up, reproduce, and prosper in these zones and then spill out into surrounding areas. Zone B, where Ieranto Bay is located, is slightly less restricted. Unauthorized motor boats and diving, anchoring, and fishing is prohibited. However, things like boats with electric motors, pedal boats, kayaking, sailing, and authorized tours are allowed. Zone C is the most lenient area where most everything is allowed with the exception of unauthorized professional and sports fishing.
On my first weekend here, I got to accompany Mimì and the volunteers on my first trip to Ieranto Bay. As there is no road access directly to the bay, we had to hike up from the closest small town of Nerano. It was about a 30-minute hike, more or less, with the most beautiful views of the coastline. Once over the mountain, you can see the bay below and Capri in the background. At the bay, we share the office of FAI (Italian Environment Fund). We split into smaller groups and each set out to perform various activities.
Working in the sea
I began in the kayak with park monitoring where I learned about the differences between authorized and unauthorized boats that come into the bay. With monitoring, we have to account for all the boats that enter and keep track of the statistics for each one, such as whether it has authorization, what type of boat it is, where they came from, whether or not they knew it is an MPA, and more.
Working on the land
After monitoring, I got back on land and we also took some data on the amount of people there on the beach and in the water. I then got learn a little more about the old quarry present there and the history behind it. It closed down around 70 years ago, but back in the day the limestone there was transported onto boats and then taken to Napoli for building.
Then, we got back in the kayaks for a little and did some more personal exploration around the bay to get to know it a little better. Towards the end of the day we all met up and shared our findings and talked about our experiences throughout the day. We then began the somewhat intense hike back up that mountain back down to Nerano. The hike up could be fairly steep at some points, though the view is so surreal you forget how tired you are.
At office
On Monday we came into the office and learned more about the park here and what exactly we are working to protect. Our MPA’s ecosystem consists of 3 different levels. There is the sandy bottom that contains Posidonia and algae, the rocky bottom that has coral and caves, and the water column that is home to medusa, various fish, and sea turtles. We learned how there is a large amount of upwellings in Ieranto Bay, so we see more deep-sea organisms that we wouldn’t normally see. Overall there are 132 species accounted for in the bay. Though, the main organism that I am constantly hearing about is Posidonia, a seagrass species that is local to the Mediterranean region. It is extremely vital to the marine ecosystem here. It protects against erosion caused by the waves during storms, acts as a host for several small organisms to live on, and is a huge source of oxygen which is the basis for a diverse and healthy marine environment. This is why the park monitoring is so important as then engine of motor boats and any sort of anchoring would potentially destroy the sea bottom there. Therefore, any boat that enters the bay should attach themselves to buoys set up by the MPA instead. We also learned about the threat of date mussel fishing, which destroys not only the mussel but also the surrounding organisms and the environment where it comes from.
