The richness of the archipelago is not only in the beaches. It lies in the seabeds, in the sky and in the scrub, and much of it is protected by law.
Underwater, posidonia rules. It is not an alga but a true marine plant, with roots, leaves and flowers, and its meadows are the submerged forest of the Mediterranean: they produce oxygen, retain sediments, act as a nursery for hundreds of species. Among the leaves live brown groupers, sea bream, octopuses and the odd lobster. On the seabeds the pinna nobilis, the large fan-shaped mollusc, and the ferruginous limpet, among the rarest molluscs in the Mediterranean, still survive.
Those brown leaves sometimes found on the shore are not dirt: they are beached posidonia, and form a natural cushion protecting the sand from storm surges. Removing it, as was once done to “clean”, means weakening the beach itself.
In flight and on the cliffs, the archipelago is a resting and nesting point. Here nests the Audouin’s gull, a protected Mediterranean species, together with the European shag, while the peregrine falcon hunts on the walls. In the Strait of Bonifacio dolphins also pass and, more rarely, the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta. On land the wild goat survives, along with a flora accustomed to salt and wind, with endemics such as Helichrysum italicum subsp. microphyllum and the sea lily.
What keeps it all in balance is a simple ban: you do not collect, you do not disturb, you take nothing away. It applies to a starfish as to a flower, and applies above all to species that appear common but are in fact protected.
Follow the posts on our Blog to discover which species populate the archipelago!
Final tip
The best way to fully enjoy the magic of the archipelago is to stay in La Maddalena so you can experience the island in a unique way.
