«Our lobsters caught by you in Corsica, you have to pay us», curtain in Santa Teresa Gallura

«We had a project on lobster repopulation and our lobsters were caught in Corsica, and therefore you have to pay us!», said Vittorio Gazale, director of the Asinara National Park, smiling, addressing Jean Michel Culioli, manager of the reserve natural of the Strait of Bonifacio. «Of course we have to pay for some of the lobsters at Asinara», he replied amusedly, «but La Maddalena has to pay for some of the groupers... and also Asinara; we therefore have to exchange lobsters for groupers", responded promptly and equally smiling Jean Michel Culioli, referring to the excellent results they obtained with the repopulation, especially in the Lavezzi, of this fish.

The fun little scene took place in Santa Teresa Gallura, during a round table which saw 7 directors from national parks and Sardinian protected marine areas discuss common problems and perspectives, together with the person in charge of that race, with the regional councilor present 'Environment, Marco Porcu.

«What we have always done is to have started many collaborations with the realities close to our park», explained Vittorio Gazale, «and I'm talking about Porto Conte, Capocaccia, La Maddalena, Capo Testa, the friends of Bonifacio; really many research projects." A territory and a sea without borders, above all for the marine and terrestrial species that populate it, this one of the Strait of Bonifacio, on which many realities overlook, «because the sea birds that live in La Maddalena - continued Gazale - come to eat with us, in Asinara, or they sleep with us and go to eat theirs. From an environmental point of view, obviously barriers don't exist, perimeters don't exist."

PLASTINA – During the same meeting, Giulio Plastina, director of the La Maddalena Archipelago National Park, also spoke: «The islands of the La Maddalena Archipelago National Park are under assault. Especially in the months of July and August we experience a load, a massive presence of boats and ships of all types whose sole objective is to enjoy this territory", he said, adding: "It often happens, for example, that the islands can arrive a 15 meter boat, you drop anchor, not always on sand but often on seagrass, and then from the boat, at a certain point, first the slide is inflated, then the jet skis are put into the sea and then sup and then foil; a series of "toys" therefore, for which the trend in recent years is to transform every boat, every unit, into an aquatic playground. The problem therefore, today, is not only the excessive presence of boats and pleasure craft but of everything that revolves around each of these vehicles".

The question raised by the director of the La Maddalena Park was therefore that of the «indisputable fragility» of the environment of the Strait of Bonifacio, «for which we must find a point of balance between environmental sustainability and protection of the economic interests, which but they must go hand in hand with environmental protection." Giulio Plastina provided some data, stating that in 2023 he had surveyed 167 companies operating in the rental sector, companies included in the area from Olbia to Santa Teresa Gallura; 147 companies working in the rental sector, for a total of nautical vehicles, between rental and rental, which is around a thousand units. Of these pleasure craft, approximately 650 are boats, i.e. inflatable boats, dinghies, and of these approximately 500 can be driven by anyone, without having any qualification. This is, Plastina continued, 50% of the nautical vehicles that gravitate in this area, the area of the Strait of Bonifacio, but which arrives at Lavezzi, Isola Piana a Cavallo and so on. «I add to this, 27 passenger transport traffic units, which arrive from Santa Teresa Gallura, Palau, Cannigione, La Maddalena, Olbia, which can carry, in total, 4250 passengers: then they have diving... then it happens that from 2011 comes the occasional rental and then we discover that there are hundreds of boaters who dedicate themselves to this type of rental... In recent years, occasional rental has become an almost completely uncontrollable phenomenon". In this situation, concluded Giulio Plastina, "the Park becomes the body on which a whole series of responsibilities are dumped that we clearly do not have, because we cannot intervene on state laws".