Updated on December 7, 2019
The wonders of the Bay
Ieranto is not just kayaking. Sometimes we change the surface of the water to go deeper and discover some wonders that usually we don’t see.
When we do guided snorkeling tours, we already know what we are going to show, where are the most important and beautiful things, it’s (almost) everything predetermined. But… we want to know more, to discover more, to show more and it was here, when and where our new adventure starts.
During some days, part of our volunteers went deeper to explore another face of Ieranto. Equipped with mask, snorkel, fins and a photographic camera, we went to the water to study the beauties of the bay, the ones that usually people don’t see. There were 4 intensive days, plus extra hours during summer work, in a total of more than 12h, almost done just in one small part of the bay. It was an intensive exploration, going into every holes that we could find, searching from big to very small living creatures and finding amazing things that we are going to share with you.
But first, we have to tell you our most beautiful day. It was 29th of October and the meteorological conditions were amazing. As the summer work in Ieranto was finished, it was easier to go there by kayak. After 1h of kayaking we arrived to an amazing natural landscape with a flat and emerald blue sea, without boats, without people, just occupied by wildlife – all seagulls were in their sea, enjoying this calm place.
It was time to enter into the cold water and it was when everything happen! Maybe because the sea was really calm, we saw some creatures that usually weren’t seen there and everytime that we looked to the side, we discovered another one. Besides that, we saw them in a place where all the people could have seen. Where were they during the summer? We are talking about this small gastropods that a lot of people think they are nudibranchs.
Eastern emerald elysia
(Elysia timida)
Hope’s elysia
(Thuridilla hopei)
Little sea hare
(Aplysia parvula)
Yellow umbrella tylodina
(Tylodina perversa)
This enthusiasm kept us warm and let us keep searching during 3:30h.
Hairy hermit crab
(Pagurus anachoretus)
Red starfish
[Echinaster (Echinaster) sepositus]
Star coral
(Astroides calycularis)
Warty crab
(Eriphia verrucosa)
Spirograph 
Mediterranean moray
(Muraena helena)
Even without battery on the camera, we still founding some amazing organisms, for the first time, which told us that we should come back in the day after. We went, and yes, we found the creatures that we hope to find, in the same places, as this little crab:
Spider crab
(Pisa sp.)
With this work, together with others done in previous years, we could identify more than 200 species (algae, invertebrates and fishes) of which near 10 are endangered. Soon we are going to share more precise information about each specie that we found. And we hope that we can show to you these amazing creatures in the next summer with our guided tours.
Now, we know that we can show more than usual, we just have to search in different places.
