Updated on October 4, 2016
“Puliamo il Mondo 2016”
“Puliamo il mondo” it is the biggest initiative of the environmental volunteers organized in Italia by Legambiente in collaboration with ANCI, ministry of environment, ministry of education, and ministry of university and scientifically researches.
Every last week of September of the last twenty years, volunteers from all the world do environmental initiatives.
Every year the number of participants increase, last year it was 500 thousand volunteers in 1700 localities, for this year the number increased to 600 thousand participants in 1700 communities, and 4000 localities.
We clean the world by a simple action to protect the environment, by the support of municipalities, schools, and associations. Thanks to this event, project MARE team did some initiatives to clean some places in peninsula Sorrentina.
Firstly, we divided the work in two parts. The first part for adults and their mission which was to clean the majority of beaches in the peninsula sorrentina and the second part for children and their mission which was to clean the gardens of their schools and also planted new plants.
We started with the adults to clean the beaches. The first day it was in Marina grande in Sorrento with the collaboration of Subacqua association, the municipality, coast guardians. Two divers cleaned under water and the rest of us cleaned the beach, to make it look more beautiful and clean,especially to preserve this beautiful sea. The next day we cleaned the beach of Puolo with 40 children from the primary schools of Pastena and Torca. The last place for our mission was Reggina Giovanna in Capo di Sorrento.
During previous week and also this one we worked with children (who have 4 years and more) from 4 schools and kindergardens (kindergarden of Saint Agata, Torca, Pastena) and one primary school (Saint Agata) – 65 children in total. We spoke with them about the importance of protecting
the environment and after that we planted together a lettuce, bean, garlic and onion in their school gardens. With the primary school we cleaned Via Canal street with the participation of 40 children and the pine forest in Saint Agata where we involved 80 children. We showed them the importance to keep the green areas clean and how to separate different types of rubbish.
Thanks to the help of marine protected area punta campanella , school of saint agata, torca, and pastena we did a nice job to make the peninsula cleaner, and look more beautiful.
Updated on October 3, 2016
BluTeam in Action
The first days of September the Marine Protected Area of Punta Campanellawas committed to the second edition of “Bluteam in Action”, where biologists, divers, photographers and academics have monitored and studied the protected marine waters for 24 consecutive hours, from Thursday, September 1st at 6 until Friday, Septmber 2nd at the same time. They have counted 151 species in 8 diving spots between zones A, B and C: Vervece, Puolo, Isca rocks, Penna rock, Fossa Papa, Ieranto Bay, Montalto and Vetara.
Biodiversity in the Marine Park of Punta Campanella is increasing as indicated in the annual report of the “Blueteam in Action”. The 151 registered species (including 57 of fish, 30 of molluscs and 15 sponges) improved the results of last year survey, when 113 different animal species were identified.
The divers have gone underwater with cameras and writing slates and have done day and night explorations accordingly to an organized schedule with well-defined shifts. As in many activities organized by the Marine Protected Area of Punta Campanella, project MARE has also participated in “Bluteam in Action” diving and snorkeling in different spots of the park.
This year 151 registered species are an indicator of the good health of the park seabed and of the improvement of the already rich biodiversity present in the different protected zones. This year’s data represent an increase of over 20% of the animal species identified with respect to last year, and even though this result has no scientific value, it remains very significant.
The “Bluteam in Action” activities ended with the result presentation on Sunday, September 4th, the day of Vervece party. And with a photo exhibition in Marina della Lobra, where shots of recognized underwater photographers such as Guido Villani, Edward Ruspantini, Mimmo and Roscigno Enzo Troisi were exhibited.
Updated on October 7, 2016
“A Sea to Explore” party
We finish the summer season of Un Mare Per Esplorare with a big party. Before starting the games we make a small exhibition and take some silly photos in a photo stand that Sonia, volunteer from two years ago, has made. Then we paint faces, all, us and kids, dress in Project MARE blue and 5,4,3,2,1 the happy chaos can start! All kids are separated into groups and this evening is dedicated to travel around in different parts of the sea by doing games. Each of us is responsible for one part of the sea and therefore also one game. Radek water column. Nuria – caves. Akrem – rocks. Mimi – sand and Sonya – Posidonia. Kids have to go to each of us, do a game and collect a signature. When they have traveled all parts of the sea they get a special stamp that they have traveled everywhere and the fastest group wins a flag of Project MARE. Okay. Easy enough. But, what are the games? Radek, the water column gives kids a hard time finding seven differences in drawings of the sea and then taking a spoon in the mouth and by not using hands they have to take the water from a bowl and bring it to a glass to full half of it. What is the deep meaning, lesson behind this? I have to be honest and say that I don’t know but after since it’s a party and we are all smart after these workshops we can just play games for fun, without thinking much about it.
Then kids go to Akrem – responsible for the rocky part of the sea. Here they are faced to a slippery board and soap that they have to bring up with a stick. The faster you do it the better but soon enough kids are faced with the harsh reality that it’s not as easy as it looks. Many attempts, deep concentration, kids around holding their breaths… Finally! They do it! It’s time to complete the next task. Mimi– responsible for the sand. Here four kids are given a bottle, and a pencil tied in a string. They have to tie it around their belly and from the back put in the bottle. Little ones are very dynamic and athletic and do it right in a very short time but it’s even more entertaining to watch it from a far because it’s seems like some strange jellyfish dance.
Atmosphere grows more intense. Sun is setting down. The games are coming to an end. Screaming kids have the last two games. Sonia – responsible for Posidonia meadows. Here kids have to do a tower of cards and make it as strong as possible. This has to be done in limited time because after 30 seconds they are faced to the danger of destruction by an anchor. Which here is just a small hook while in real life anchoring really just in few seconds destroy Posidonia, the lungs of sea, the home and food supply for sea animals. As the last one we have Nuria – responsible of the underwater caves. This might be the hardest task of them all. I go to document and what I see instantly makes me think of an action film with laser maze where the person has to get through it using all the possible athletic tricks. What is happening here is not far from what I imagine. Kid takes a mirror, go through cave backwards and tries to get through the maze that all of the sticks don’t fall on him.
Some do it 5 times, some do it in the first time. Most important is that it’s fun and it makes a lot of noise! So a person who doesn’t know what it happening sees just kids running around and screaming something. We, however, know that whichever group finishes first runs to Carmela to get a stamp in the passport. Like this you have traveled all of the sea. Now it’s just question if you are the first. If you are, congratulations! Your home is now decorated with Project MARE flag! We finish the evening with a big concert of traditional Neapolitan music and certificates for all of us for being little, curious sea explorers. Then, for a proper party, moms of the kids have prepared jellyfish costumes for the girls and shark costumes for the boys. Later some of us eat and dance together and we even get some thank you and goodbye hugs from kids. In the end it’s really beautiful evening and it’s very cute watching dozens of kids running around with painted faces and dressed in costumes.
Updated on October 18, 2016
Recovery of a sea turtle
Last Sunday several fishermen found, roughly a mile off Torre del Greco, a Caretta caretta turtle having problems and not being able to get underwater. They called the marine park of Punta Campanella and Mimi went to pick the turtle up. Yesterday morning, the members of project MARE went to Naples to take the turtle to the “Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn” where specialists will take care of it until it is ready to return to the sea, like they are doing with a lot of sea turtles.
We call the turtle “Aid” in honor of our comrade Akrem, who yesterday could not be at home enjoying this important Tunisian holiday (Aid). Aid has a weight of 37.8 kg and a shell of 65.5 cm. According to the vet it does not seem very sick and has a good nutritional status, what makes him think that it will soon be ready to return to the sea, as we all want!
Two weeks ago, some other turtle was found by tourists close to Capri and the marine park did the same operation. And same thing happened three days ago in Cilento (http://napoli.repubblica.it/cronaca/2016/09/11/foto/cilento_i_pescatori_salvano_carla_la_caretta_caretta_investita_da_una_barca-147579979/1/#1).
There are too many difficulties in the sea for sea turtles: nets, boats, pollution (particularly plastic)… which unfortunately make that we often find turtles having problems. For these animals it is per se complicated to reach adulthood, as we already know (especially after monitoring of a nest of Caretta caretta in Cilento).
Thus, we want to highlight the absolute urge for recovering and protecting such endangered animals. We also want to thank all people involved in the process of recovery of each and every marine turtle, specially to the vet Andrea Affuso from the “Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn” for his amazing work and his kindness when explaining so many things to us. Let’s hope that every time we are more people concerned about the well-being of these amazying creatures.
Updated on October 18, 2016
Monitoring a nest of sea turtles
Last week in beautiful beach of Caprioli in Cilento workers and volunteers of “Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn Napoli” cooperating with volunteers of “Mare Project” were taking care day and night of a turtle nest of Caretta caretta.
In 5th of July a guard of the beach bar “Lido lo Scoglio” in night saw that turtle of Caretta caretta came out of sea and expend eggs very near of the bar, so he inform the organization who later demarcated area so the nest is safe.
In nowadays the big problem for turtles is hotels in the beaches because of the lights and sounds. Naturally the females came back to the beach to do a nest where they were born. So this turtle was borne in around 30-40 years ago in beach of Caprioli and returned back to make a new nest. So during this time the beach became more crowded and dangerous for turtles. Because of that there is a lot of volunteers who helped to make a safe place for them to born and start new life in the sea.
With a research of turtle nests nowadays it is possible to predict the time when new turtles will born. So with the mathematical formula and the temperature of the nest it is possible to know more or less the day they are ready to came out from the nest.
Starting from 23. of August volunteers started to guard the nest day and night because the interest of people is huge and also is dangerous for new turtle babes. The predicted time was 25. of August, and it was exact. In the night around 00:15 first turtles were born and till 2am in total was born 38 turtles. The volunteers had a full hands of work, some took care of people who wanted to see, and there was a lot, the others made measurements and helped with torch, to little turtles to find the sea. First night was crazy but went very well. So the work continued and in 26. of august came another 22 baby turtles, but because of lights some of them in early morning came back following the lights of the hotels, this is unfortunate but it is life. The volunteers who were in there shift in the morning found one and took with the boat far in the sea to release, the others sadly no. In 27. of August came 11 turtles, later 28. of august another 16. So the work still continues day and night because average the female turtle can lay from 80- 150 eggs. And if there is no turtle coming out any more volunteers wait for two days and then they will open the nest to do a research to get more info about them.
This situation gave us a rather bitter-sweet feeling.. to participate and be able to see this amazing natural event is a real luck for us and it is something unforgettable, but at the same moment it is really sad that the presence of volunteers is necessary. Humans have become the most natural thing in an artificial one, now little turtles need our help for arriving to the sea, just because we destroyed their nest points. The most stressful and dangerous moment of theirs lives becomes more and more stressful and dangerous because every day there is more pollution, lights and boats all around them and also because a lot of people want to see their birth. The good thing is that if people start to be aware of this big problem perhaps they also start to respect and take care of the sea and the nature in general.
Thank you so much to the “Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn” and all of the people who spent days and nights worried for the little turtles! We need to continue protecting this amazing treasure!
