Underwater flower garden around Tavolara island, Sardinia

 

Sharing again the amazing underwater colours of the Tavolara marine park in Sardinia! There are sooo many underwater plants like the marine marguerite (it. "margherita di mare") which makes the underwater landscape looks like a garden/field above the surface:-))) And of course we met the nudibranches! In the last picture you can see Nico swimming above an old amphora...Can you see it, it almost as big as him:-)))

Underwater colours around Tavolara, Sardinia - part 2, nudibranches

 

The tiny nudibranches (from "nacked" (="nudi" in Latin) and "gills" (="branch" in Greek) are some of the most colourful creatures on Earth, and of course underwater. These sea slugs have lost their shell as they have developped other protecting mechanism. They either blend in with the environment they live in or they have striking coloration which is warning that they are distasteful or poisonous...

 

While diving around Tavolara island one may encounter few of them as presented here. However these beauties love cold water and in summer hide into the deep waters...

 
And one big red sea star for a happy end....

Welcome to island Tavolara in Sardinia/ Isola Tavolara in Sardegna

 

Today I will take you to a magic and very relaxing place...from the amazing beach "La Cinta" (on the first picture) you may already spot its mighty and magical silhouette: the island Tavolara. This limestone rock is 5 km long and 1 km wide, its hightest point is Monte Cannone with 565 m above sea level...

Tavolara is pretty quiet nowadays with daily ferries bringing tourists in summer for enjoying the quiet beaches. All inhabitants were displaced in 1962 when a NATO radiogoniometric station was constructed on the eastern half of the island. The aerials from the station can be seen from quite a distance, and that entire half of the island is restricted to military personnel. The island has also a VLF-transitter that can transmit messages to submarines. Now only few families live here and a restaurant offers warm food to the tourist.

 

Last but not least a lot of visitors come to admire Tavolaras underwater inhabitants...

 
Tavolara in the back here after some great dives with our favourite diving club called Porto San Paolo!

The underwater world in Sardinia: nudibranches

A nudibranch is a soft-bodied mollusk (= invertebrate animal) which leaves their shell after their larval stage. They are famous and loved for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms. There are more than 3,000 described species of nudibranches. The word "nudibranch" comes from the Latin nudus, naked, and the Greek brankhia, gills.

While in Sardinia we were told that nudibranches in the Mediterranean sea love cold water and when the summer start they are more rarely sighed, but we were still lucky enough to discover and see different ones:-) The biggest one is the so called in Italian "vaccheta di mare" (the white with the balk dots, literally the "sea cow"). It can reach up to 10 cm.

Most of the them are however really tiny, from 0,5 to 2-3cm. The bright and impressive colours are signal for predators that the soft body contains venom. This is also their only protection...

The underwater world in Sardinia: crustaceans

Underwater one may meet several different species: not only fishes, but also crustaceans (such as individuals from the crabs and lobsters), cephalopods (an example are the octopuses from my previous blog entry) and or the tiny and colourful nudibranches, Today I will show you some impressively beautiful crustaceans. In my selection you may find the hermit crab, the slipper lobster, the crayfish..

The slipper lobster (second picture) is not a real lobster, despite its name. It is however eatable. some species in Australia are called "bug". This kind has tons of different names: shovel-nosed lobster or spanish lobster, mudbug or sandbug, sometimes even flathead or bulldozer lobster:-)) The one we met had edges of its body coloured in purple...

Above is Nico holding the empty houses of two sea urchins... A Specialty in some restaurants here is "spagetthi ai ricci di mare" (pasta with sea urchin). Of course not only the people but also other sea inhabitants love them.

Some funny info about the hermit crab (first and last picture) : As the hermit crab grows in size, it has to find a larger shell and abandon the previous one. This habit of living in a second hand shell gives rise to the popular name "hermit crab", by analogy to a hermit who lives alone.

Diving with "polpi"/octopuses next to Tavolara, Sardinia

The emerald sea around the three islands Tavolara, Molara and Molaretto (in the North of Sardinia) is an amazing nature reserve, called "Tavolara and Capo Coda Cavallo Marine Park". Laura, our friendly diving master from Sardinia, had this very funny dry suit, with the ears on the head...

The underwater world in the park is very beautiful. During only one day we met/ saw 7 octopuses! Some of them were sleeping in their holes. One could see just their eyes and the breathing opening next to the eyes. One "polpo" was not afraid at all and made a big show by stretching slowly all his 8 tentacles.