Secca di Amendolara Regional Marine Park

Walls of red corals and black corals, expanses of green 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 place in the Ionian Sea, for its biodiversity and peculiarities. The park lies off the coast of the municipality of Amendolara (CS), between Calabria, Puglia and Basilicata in the Gulf of Taranto, and reaches a depth of forty metres.

The shoal is located off the mouth of the River Crati and is most likely an ancient island submerged due to erosion. This is testified by some nautical charts, dating back to the 17th-18th centuries, in which there is a trace of an islet called Monte Sardo. The Secca di Amendolara consists of coral-bottomed rocks that have formed over a platform of mud and sand up to about 27 metres from the surface, which is the height of the highest rock.

The Marine Park is a true natural paradise, with large prairies of Posidonia oceanica, one of the most important and representative aquatic plants in the Mediterranean. Fascinating and suggestive are also the other species identified in the area, including gorgonians (Eunicella cavolini) and Pinna nobilis, commonly known as “nacchera”, the largest bivalve in the Mediterranean; its collection is prohibited because it risks extinction.

The Norway lobster, the red shrimp and the white hake find their natural habitat in this area. But the presence of shoals of red coral and black coral, never before seen in the Ionian Sea, is spectacular. Scuba diving and snorkelling enthusiasts will be able to discover wonderful corners here where fish and plant life pulsate. The Secca di Amendolara represents one of the few seamounts in the Mediterranean, real underwater mountains elevated on a flat seabed, generating unique oceanographic, physical and biological conditions that are certainly worth preserving.