Visiting program at sea
The educational and divulgation activities offered by the Reserve are aimed to the wide public, and not only focused on school groups or organized tours. The goal is to develop a shared environmental culture among people, by making them more responsible towards the marine environment, and by enhancing their active involvement in the decisions to be taken and implemented in sensitive areas.
In detail, the activities that can be done at Miramare – especially over the summer - are:
- sea-watching, where you can take a swim with fins, mask and snorkel, and give a look to the sea below the surface. Practising sea-watching is very easy. It's enough to get the minimum of equipment and with the help of plasticized booklets and cards one can observe the organisms living in the shallow coastal waters. The visit area is in the core zone of the Reserve, which assures astonishing views and plenty of encounters with the marine flora and fauna. All visits are kept within a protected and safe area, thus making them suitable even for children;
- SCUBA diving, where you can dive into the rich and diverse Miramare underworld. There are several diving options, and each trip is planned keeping in mind the divers’ level of experience. The itinerary never goes over 15 meters in depth permitting in this way the diver to observe freely the sea environment leaving the worries about the technical aspects of the diving in the second place.
These visits (organised only for limited number of people) are subject to strict regulations since they take place in the protected area and can be done only with presence of the guides of the reserve who are either scuba-diving instructors, final-year undergraduates or experts in marine biology. They are all able to explain in a clear and thorough way the variety of organisms living on the protected seabed. The visits are organised on certain days of the week and during certain periods of the year, on the request of those interested.
The seawatching, started by WWF-Italy in Miramare in 1989, through a correct approach to the environment tries to offer to a visitor the direct knowledge of the sea and at the same time is an alternative to the underwater fishing. Just as bird-watching has brought thousands of people close to the wetlands this new practice will certainly result in new lovers of the sea and its protection.
Over the years, Miramare protected area has hosted thousands of enthusiastic visitors from all over the country and from abroad. The data that can be derived from the booking calendars show it clearly: every year the Reserve organizes over 900 diving tours and over 500 snorkeling trips. About a half of the visitors are children and youth that benefit of this great chance to get to know the astonishing marine underworld. People are usually happy with their visit to such an extent, that they tend to come back for a school trip or a diving tour year after year.
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