Wonderful Red Coral wall
The seabed in which we often dive, that is, those of the coast that goes from Livorno to Elba Island, are famous for their beauty and for the biodiversity of the various marine species that populate them despite the impact of humans. Bellissima parete Corallo rosso intotheblue.it
In this dive we are on a seabed that varies from 45 to 50 meters deep and we found a rocky wall completely covered by the Red Coral, Corallium rubrum.. As we have often told the red coral is repopulating our seas and from the movie we can see how the coral is vital and in good health. This is certainly not thanks to man, since this species was wildly fished by coral reefs and divers in the area to the point of almost causing its extinction.
Red coral of these sea beds unlike other Italian areas famous for coral such as Alghero, Capo Caccia, Ustica or Portofino, in fact has the characteristic of having an intense dark red color, and therefore particularly appreciated for this rare characteristic.
The color of the coral depends on how the polyps feed and therefore on the environment in which it lives and on the environmental conditions such as currents and the suspension that brings food to the polyps.
Furthermore, a recent ordinance of the Tuscany Region has finally prohibited any professional fishing of Corallium rubrum within 1.5 km from the coast, to safeguard the species and to ensure that it can flourish again as it did 50/60 years ago in these areas.
Recall that the red coral has a very slow growth. This endemic species of the Mediterranean Sea grows by about 3-4 mm per year in height and 0.25-0.60 mm per year in diameter and this makes it particularly vulnerable to human harvesting. In the video you can see coral branches even of a height of about ten centimeters, probably escaped from fishing for coral that still today often operate in an unsustainable way.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corallium_rubrum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_coral