Snorkeling in Sant’Angelo – Scoglio de “La Roja” with Nemo Association

We start from the “Chiaia di Rose” beach where in June of 2009 there was a visit by a Common Turtle (Caretta caretta) that chose the reef in front of it as a resting site and then continued its journey to the Mediterranean.

The shallow pebbly bottom is home to sand anemones (Anemonia sulcata) and friendly hermit crabs (Pagurus sp.) and, all around, salps and schools of mullet frantically searching for food.

We continue to the west side of S.Angelo at a time of the rock formation of “The Parades” which as we descend into the depths forms a hospitable environment for octopuses, moray eels, urchins and starfish.

Among the rocks feeds the Atlantic runner crab (Percnon gibbesi), a typical “alien” species that has rapidly spread in the seas of southern Italy since the early 2000s and whose presence on Ischia was officially reported in 2004.

Peacock damsels, fish typical of the southern coasts of the Mediterranean and present in our latitudes for about 20 years, grace the environment with their bright colors.

We then come to the Roja (which stands for “seagull” in the local dialect), a rock outcropping from a seabed about ten meters deep, so called because of the frequent presence of a seagull on its summit. From here on, the sea drops steeply to a trench more than a thousand meters deep, which is why sightings of large pelagic fish are not uncommon.

We return toward land passing above a small Posidonia oceanica meadow, a marine plant that provides several ecosystem services of vital importance to marine well-being, and more rocks and ravines that will provide the last glimpses of a rich and generous sea that never tires of telling its stories to those who will listen.