Unique Vacations Off the Coast of Sardegna Teach Young and Old All About Marine Conservation

My daughter came home all excited the other evening – fresh after a big night with her friends walking around the nearby city of Gallipoli (check out the AC Travel Archives for city information). One of their stops along the way happened to be a travel office where they snatched up pamphlets that offered mini-vacations in “Eco-Tourism”. In case you don’t know, this is a term being tossed about quite a bit these days, and the concept is a good one, as it places tourists in the middle of a specific environment – the Amazon River for example – and offers fun and education at the same time in a natural environment.
What hooked my daughter’s interest is a program that is happening continually during the summer months, and may prove to be one of the more productive and fun uses of her time. But first, a little backgroundâÂ?¦.

An opportunity to swim along side dolphins or ride on the backs of marine turtles is one of those childhood fantasies we all seem to have nurtured when we were younger but never realized. This was the stuff of documentaries or adventure films and not something the average Joe could ever experience. That is, until now. In the mid-1990’s though, this type of activity suddenly came into its own and evolved into big business. In locations as diverse as Southern Florida, the Bahamas and Hawaii and Singapore, “Aquatic Research Parks” began to offer tourists the thrill of lifetime by allowing them to play and swim with dolphins and turtles, while concurrently studying these magnificent creatures.

In Sardegna, this type of activity was just a pipe dream until the late 1990’s when the “Centre for Dolphin Research” – located in La Maddalena, the island of Capraia and also on the Pelagie Archipelago began to use volunteers as their part of their research staff. In the process, a tourist industry as born. The centres continue to employ volunteers during the months of June through September, but rather than gear the activities only to students of marine biology, anyone can spend a week or two aiding in the on-going research – identifying dolphins or assisting in the annual hatching ritual of marine turtles that come up on the beach to lay their eggs.

These programs in turn are sponsored by CTS – the “Centre for Student Tourism” which specializes in eco-tourism, cultural interaction adventures and learning vacations all over the world. In Sardegna, volunteers get “deep in” right away and will be in the water before they know it. Volunteers don’t need to be qualified divers, but they do need to be able swimmers and be willing to learn and assist in a variety of activities ranging from feeding dolphins to recording data.

The aim of the dolphin adventure is two-fold: obviously to satisfy the wishes of the volunteer who has always dreamed of swimming with dolphins, but the experience also hopes to teach participants about efforts to protect coastal dolphins.
Volunteers live in either cabins or large tents and in fact a portion of the cost goes towards providing room and board while the rest of monies generated goes toward funding on-going research and care.

Not too far away from the island of Capraia sits the small beach of Linosa. Here sits the base of operations for the “Research, Retrieval and Protection of the Marine Turtle or “Tartarughe Caretta”. On this tiny strip of sand, the turtles come every year to lay their eggs, and volunteers will be assisting to make sure this yearly ritual is accomplished. The centre also provides rehabilitation for turtles that are sick or injured by speed boats or the result of ingesting fishing hooks. The marine turtles are a protected species and the Centre also sponsors the SOS-Tartarughe program which works hand-in-hand with local fishermen who keep the centre informed if they come across an injured turtle.

Groups are kept small, to ensure that all participants have ample opportunity to get involved and walk away feeling they not only had fun, but that they also “give something back to the environment”. Volunteers are caterd to: they cook their own meals, cleans their living areas and in genral pull their own weight. Eco-volunteering is one of the more unique ways to spend some of your summer vacation. And these programs off the coast of Sardegna prove it.

These vacations come at a price, but if you are travelling to Italy between now and the end of September, these programs may be worth checking out. Summer’s not over yet and there is still a change I can squeeze this in for my daughter. If not, well – there’s always next summer. Heck, I might even go along too – cuz I have to admit, playing with dolphins has always been a dream of mine also!