Updated on July 17, 2017
Patrolling the ‘Yellow’ Zone: “Campo Boe”
Every year, from the 15th of June to 30th of September, the park operates and maintains 27 yellow buoys in a yellow zone (meaning you cannot anchor there) near Nerano. The buoys themselves were installed to protect the posedonia within the area, since anchors can rip up large swaths of it in one go. There are many boats that come and go, with the weekends being the most hectic. The activity is headed by Luca and Nicola, the two boat captains of the Area Marina Protetta.
From around the 20th of June, Anis and Henrik have been helping the responsible persons with their jobs, with more languages and manpower available to ensure as good a job as possible is carried out. It is hot work under the sun, but luckily the company is excellent. The other main aim of us volunteers involved with the management of the buoys is to educate in the spirit of project M.A.R.E. regarding posedonia: know where you can find it; why it is important, and ask people to respect it. The sight of a posedonia tangled anchor is not a nice one:
We also spend time cleaning the sea between handling boats, with plenty of garbage being picked up during the day. Captain Luca should earn the title “Hawk-eyes” due to his impressive ability to spot anything, trash or useful, within the sea from miles away… especially hats…
Several hundreds of boats have been handled, which hopefully will help spread the message of the good work the park is doing and what people can do to avoid destroying posedonia. Anis and Henrik also get to improve their Italian, with downtime being spent discussing Italian culture and problems… and football (Squadra di Napoli). Not to mention the clients of the buoys themselves… all in good humour!
Hard work with great results!
