Torre del Cerrano Marine Protected Area

The Torre del Cerrano Marine Protected Area stretches along the coast for seven kilometers between the Municipalities of Pineto and Silvi. It was established for the protection and enhancement of the environment, complementing the network of underwater oases that have allowed for the safeguarding, repopulation, and study of the marine ecosystem.

The area presents two distinct environmental types: the typical sandy bottoms of the Adriatic Sea and some parts of rocky seabeds. The area is home to numerous animal species and a small but rich contingent of plant species, including specimens of a small and rare Adriatic gastropod known as the Adriatic trivia. In the underwater environment of the protected area, it is easy to come across various species of fish and mollusks, including groupers, sea bass, sole, and sea bream, which live in contact with the sandy bottoms characterized by extensive and important banks of Chamelea gallina (common clam).

The species present in the Torre del Cerrano Marine Protected Area include the Kentish plover, a rare species of migratory bird that nests on the beach, and various species of insects such as the Scarabeus semipunctatus and the rare Lamprinodes pictus. To protect and safeguard the nesting of the Kentish plover, a ban on dogs on the beach of the Marine Protected Area has been imposed from March to July (for more information: https://bit.ly/41y1xAA).

If you are lucky, in the area of the marine protected area, there is also the possibility of admiring, directly from the beach, pods of dolphins swimming offshore. Furthermore, in the summer of 2022, there was an extraordinary event: the hatching of a nest of loggerhead sea turtle eggs. The nest in question, located in zone C1 of the AMP, is the first documented case of nesting in the Marine Protected Area and the second in Abruzzo after that of Roseto degli Abruzzi in 2013.