Since 1982, 16 Marine Protected Areas have been instituted by the Italian Ministry of Environment.
They represent samples of different marine and coastal habitat: small islands, archipelagos, sand dunes and rocky shores
In November of 2000, a very special protected area has been instituted: the "Secche di Tor Paterno"
The protecetd area includes a group of rocky banks ("Secche") that emerge from the sandy and muddy bottoms about 5 nautical miles offshore of the Roman coast.

The protected area is located about 10 miles south of the habour of Ostia (20 km from Rome) and close to the Delta of the Tiber river.
As no lands emerge from the water, the only surfacing parts are the four large yellow buoys that mark the boundary of the protected area

At the top of the bank, from 18 meters usl down to about 25-30 metres u.s.l., meadows of sea bed grasses Posidonia oceanica grow dense, while, at deeper level, the Posidonia is replaced by great colonies of red and yellow Paramuricea clavata
A surprisingly rich fauna lives in the waters and, on the bottom, among plants, rocks and corals you can meet big groupers, rare halcyon, great sponges, moray eels, Sea horses and much more...

In the protected area, heavy impact fisheries, as trawling, are forbidden, but small scale, traditional fisheries are allowed

The respect of rules is entrusted to the Coast Guard

Special monitoring programs are carried out by the University of Rome - Tor Vergata

The management of the protected area is carried out by RomaNatura, the Regional Bureau for the Management of Natural Protected Areas in the Commune of Rome, which also manages a network of other 13 land protected areas.

The visit of the Marine Protected Area is, by now, possible only to skilled Scuba divers, but the Management Bureau is planning a program to allow the visit to non Scuba divers too, by a particular system of audio and video connecting an underwater guide to a boat on the surface.

For any further information, please contact,

RomaNatura - Ente Regionale per la Gestione del Sistema delle Aree Naturali Protette nel Comune di Roma
Via Gomenizza, 81
00195 Roma - Italy
tel. +39 06 35405310
fax +390635491519
e-mail: torpaterno@romanatura.roma.it