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July 6, 2008

Exploring Sardinia’s Marine Life

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©OCEANA/ Keith Ellenbogen

 

This morning the Oceana dive team traveled an hour and half to the most southern part of Sardinia, Italy to dive around Capo Teulada (Chia Laguna), near Cagliari. With flat seas and the most spectacular turquoise blue the eye can see — we descended into the ocean below the steep vertical cliffs that ascended into the skies.

Underwater at a depth of 60ft/20m surrounded by the relatively warm waters (68F/20C) we swam over the rocky bottom into a small cavern where we discovered an entire wall colonized by bright yellow polyps (Cnidarios sp.) Also hidden within this area were a few small yellow anemones and one motionless stonefish.

Throughout the dive we also noticed in abundance an invasive species of algae from the Red Sea growing rapidly over the seafloor. This non-native species is straining an already delicate ecosystem.

The rest of the topography seemingly lay barren – as there were very few fish and invertebrates.