Once upon a time, on the seabed of Posillipo, there was Posidonia oceanica: a vast meadow that extended up to thirty meters deep.
Decades of trawling along the coast, the enormous increase in boating and anchoring, and the clouding of the waters, aided by the aggression of the sewage discharges of a constantly growing metropolis, have swept it away, or almost.
But today this crucial plant for the fight against climate change and for the very survival of our sea and its ecosystems is making a comeback in the Gaiola Underwater Park, thanks to a habitat restoration project concentrated in these 42 hectares of sea, embellished with submerged archaeological remains and the presence of coral habitats, including gorgonians, algae and multicoloured sponges.
It all comes from rhizomes collected in a nearby marine protected area, the Kingdom of Neptune, in a spirit of collaboration between marine protected areas: in the sea of Ischia and Procida, Posidonia is in fact doing much better.
Funded under Measure 1.40 FEAMP 2023, which promotes "the protection and restoration of biodiversity and marine ecosystems", the project envisages - thanks to researchers from the Gaiola Underwater Park, with the collaboration of underwater scientific operators from the ISSD (International School for Scientific Diving) and the logistical support of the Campi Flegrei Sub Center - the replanting of new cuttings on the seabed of the Gaiola marine protected area, to restore the Posidonia that thrived here many years ago, with significant potential benefits for ecosystems and the repopulation of fish in the sea.
An endemic plant of the Mediterranean, Posidonia forms large meadows on sandy seabeds, representing a priority habitat, a true biodiversity hotspot that hosts about 20-25% of all the species present in our sea. And as is known, it also plays a fundamental role as the lung of the Mediterranean, because it is able to sequester large quantities of CO2 and produce about 20 L of oxygen per day per square meter.
An ambitious and visionary project with the dual purpose of restoring the ancient Posidonia oceanica meadow present on the seabed of the Park and mitigating the mechanical impact of human activities on the neighbouring meadows of the Phlegraean coast, by replanting on the seabed of Gaiola Posidonia oceanica cuttings already uprooted by the ploughing action of anchors or trawl nets along the Phlegraean coast, and therefore destined to die.
In this first phase, the project includes the reforestation of approximately 200 m2 of seabed. “For now, ours is an experimental project aimed at testing the most effective replanting technique on small portions of the seabed, identified thanks to meticulous preliminary studies, so as to be able to have real and significant scientific data to evaluate its success and feasibility on a larger scale.. – explains the director of the Gaiola Underwater Park, Maurizio Simeone, a marine ecologist who has been studying the Posillipo seabed for years – This is a very important step for the City of Naples, a dream that began many years ago, we all understand the meaning of being able to see Posidonia oceanica meadows growing on the seabed of Posillipo again”.
"The idea that marine protected areas, in line with what we have been doing for years on a national scale, collaborate with each other in the name of greater environmental awareness is not marginal", explains Antonino Miccio, director of the Kingdom of Nettuno.
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