Dear Gian Marco Centinaio, perhaps you, who are Minister of Tourism, might be interested to know that posidonia (the beneficial seaweed that allows the sea to oxygenate, acts as a “nursery” for the fry of many fish, and protects the coast from erosion) can be transplanted.
THE REPOPULATION OF POSIDONIA
The “reforestation” of our seabed is a little-publicized practice-as good ideas always are-that has already been successfully tested. For example, in front of Civitavecchia, before the port expansion, ten thousand square meters of posidonia were transplanted. In the case of operations that damage the seafloor (ports, laying of submarine cables, etc.) a seagrass area equal to that which will be “eaten” is created before work begins. There is also an EU-funded project, Life Seposso(www.lifeseposso.eu), which is evaluating techniques for reforestation and raising awareness of the importance of posidonia.
AND THEN WHY DON’T WE PUT BUOY FIELDS?
The good news, dear Minister, gives us “the” for consideration. Now that we know you can repopulate the sea with posidonia, do anchoring bans in marine protected areas still make sense? What if we finally wake up (as they did in Croatia, a much smaller and less bureaucratic country than ours), and put buoy fields in areas that until now are off limits to navigation? What if we went a little further, predicting them in the sparse areas as well? The environmental damage of a dead body on the bottom is not only reduced, but can be assessed and compensated for. Not like the one created by wild anchoring. In fact, Dr. Centinaio, there are no more excuses.
AN OPPORTUNITY NOT TO BE MISSED
Paid buoy fields in parks (by the way: we need national legislation that applies to all marine protected areas, we are still waiting for it) and along our coasts: enough harassment, it’s time to promote and make our nearly 8,000 kilometers of coastline attractive for real, usable by the whole world.
Among other things, it would be a great opportunity for job creation. The control and collection of the buoy mooring fee could be entrusted to the agencies of the various marine protected areas. Or to the Harbor Master’s Office, which would finally perform a service for the benefit of the citizenry (some of the money raised could be invested in environmental protection and prairie repopulation), now that sea controls have been rationalized and reduced. Dear Minister of Tourism, consider the idea. We are sure that if the posidonia could talk, it would agree with us.