Mediterranean Spiny Lobster - Palinurus elephas
In this dive on a depth that varies from 40 to 45 meters I encountered different species of marine organisms typical of the coral beds of the Mediterranean Sea. We are on a rocky wall that in some points reaches a height of 5/7 meters, characterized by holes, cracks and caves. Aragosta Mediterranea Palinurus elephas intotheblue.it
In this area there are no beautiful gorgonians that one would expect to find, but on closer observation we can see how marine life and various organisms find refuge between these cracks and are therefore able to thrive. Approaching with the torches and the camera, the gray of the cliff and the blue of the water disappear, revealing all the colors of the Mediterranean Sea.
They range from the yellow of the Parazoanthus axinellae, to the red and yellow of the starfish and countless sponges, up to the bright red of two particularly endangered species such as the Red Coral (Corallium rubrum) and the Mediterranean Lobster (Palinurus elephas). The first is slowly repopulating these reefs, the second is increasingly threatened by indiscriminate and unsustainable fishing.
In fact, the lobster between the ravines of the coral reefs often manages to escape the trammel nets and the fishermen’s nets that unfortunately drop more and more frequently in the vicinity of these vertical walls, but these nets increasingly “grab” and the fishermen are forced then to cut pieces of trammel net that will become ghost nets thus threatening this fragile ecosystem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palinurus_elephas