Secca di Amendolara Regional Marine Park

Walls of Red Corals and Black Corals, expanses of Posidonia and fish of all sizes and colours: this is the underwater landscape of the “Secca di Amendolara” Regional Marine Park, which, at 12,000 hectares, is the largest in Italy. A unique location in the Ionian Coast of Calabria due to its biodiversity and peculiarities, located in the municipality of Amendolara, in the province of Cosenza. 

The Secca di Amendolara is located off the mouth of the Crati River, formerly part of the "Lago di Tarsia-Foce del Fiume Crati" Regional Nature Reserve. It is most likely an ancient island that was submerged due to erosion, as evidenced by some nautical charts dating back to the 17th-18th centuries, which show traces of an islet called Mount Sardo. The Amendolara Shoal consists of coral reefs that formed on a platform of mud and sand about 27 metres below the surface. The shoal is one of the few seamounts in the Mediterranean, actual underwater mountains rising from a flat seabed, which generate unique oceanographic, physical and biological conditions that must certainly be preserved.  

The "Secca di Amendolara" Regional Marine Park is a true natural paradise: it includes large meadows of Posidonia Oceanica, one of the most important and representative aquatic plants in the Mediterranean, Gorgonia and Pinna Nobilis, the harvesting of which is prohibited because they are endangered. All the fish species typical of the Mediterranean find their natural habitat in this area, which can be admired through diving and snorkelling.