The seabed of the Sinis Marine Protected Area is armored. Sixty bollards have been placed about 35 meters deep to stop sea predators. One way to prevent trawling and thus safeguard the environment and artisanal fishing.

As experts say, the barriers will prevent the eventual advance of towed nets on the seabed, an illegal practice. The project, coordinated by the Medsea Foundation together with Flag Pescando, in collaboration with the marine area, was financed by Argea for a total of 300 thousand euros. This is the first example of this type on the island.

«Trawling is one of the types of fishing that causes the greatest damage to the seabed - explains Francesca Frau, head of the Foundation's sea projects -. Trawl nets have the ability to remove all that is present on the seabed such as protected habitats, essential for our sea: once all this is removed, it does not have the ability to regenerate and is never recovered».

«We focus a lot on the cultural message that the project conveys - adds Sandro Murana, president of the Flag -. We have based our overall strategy on the idea that artisanal fishing operators are the first true defenders of our sea".

"The installation of anti-trawl barriers in the seabed is an action already widely adopted by other protected marine areas - adds Guido Beltrami, agronomist and director of works for the positioning of anti-trawl structures -, with a reduction in trawl fishing detected up to 80%: by protecting the Posidonia beds, we safeguard the conditions of reproduction and growth of the fauna present just as if we were recreating "nurseries" or nurseries».

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