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Solidarity exchanges – The lagoon of Nora

Today the mistral wind is annoying and we take the opportunity to get to know something more about this corner of paradise … so let’s change the plans and head towards the Lagoon of Nora.

We leave the hotel and we head to the promontory where the Nora’s Tower or Coltellazzo’s  Tower. We reach the entrance, where a panel shows us different activities offered by the centre. We are welcomed by a biologist who has been working here for several years and who has seen the center grow so much that today it boasts about 8000/10000 visitors per year.

We cross the embankment that separates the lagoon from the sea, and we start the visit from the Mediterranean aquarium. Each tank hosts very young organisms that are brought by the fishermen of the area and after a few weeks they are freed in their natural environment. There are small mullets, various bream, a fearless moray eel, some crustaceans, anemones and echinoderms.

There is even a very shy and tiny grouper hidden in her lair: she does not yet know that if she will be lucky she’ ll can reach 150 cm in length and then she will no longer be afraid of anything. The aquarium is not great, but there are many things to know about those few organisms, and after the visit we feel a little more responsible for the future well-being of the aquatic world.

We continue towards the Cetacean gallery, and accompanied by the songs of the whales, the guide explane to us that all the exposed skeletons are  cetaceans beached along the south-western coast of the island. It is the largest collection of cetological finds in Sardinia.

Last but no least we visit is the Cetacean and Turtle Recovery Center, a real “hospital” where turtles and cetaceans recovered by fishermen are treated. Just a little empathy and you immediately realize how delicate these sea creatures are, exposed more and more to plastic pollution.

It can happen that they are heard by a boat, but most of the time they are entangled in nets, and always have large quantities of waste in their stomach. They arrived frequently and sometimes in really serious clinical conditions, are fed, operated surgically if needed, and when they can return to the sea they are freed. 

The visit is really  interesting, and the guys who accompany tourists convey all their passion. In addition to the tour guided on the mainland that we have done today, you can observe the seabed with mask and fins or go through the canals of the lagoon in a canoe to observe birdlife and local flora. Our commitment is to promote thi area of south Sardinia, but it is even more so when it comes to divulging and appreciating delicate ecosystems like this. Knowing the natural environments we approach the respect for nature and its preservation.

One of the many curiosities that we had to learn today is that the groupers are born females and after about 10-12 years, when they reach about 7-8 kg of weight, they become males, and so also many marine animals … the rest will reveal you by the boys of the center .

 

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