#Concordia, monitoring the ecosystem at Isola del Giglio

FLORENCE, ITALY – From the word go, the priority of the Concordia removal project has been to protect the environment of Isola del Giglio, Costa Concordia said in a statement.

This commitment will not end when the wreck is removed; on the contrary, it will continue long after with cleaning and restoration of the sea bed and ongoing monitoring for another five years after completion of the salvage operation. The environmental management project, comprising contributions from leading universities and research institutes, has been very successful to date.

The analysis conducted indicates that the state of the water at Isola del Giglio is good, in line with Tuscany’s territorial waters generally, and that no significant damage has been sustained by the marine ecosystem outside the area of the worksite.

This assessment has been carried out not only by means of traditional testing, but also by using more sophisticated methods such as in-depth examination of mussels, sea urchins and fish species in the local area; these forms of marine life have been periodically sampled and found to be free of contamination on the basis of comparisons with their counterparts elsewhere along the coastline.

Similarly, the sampling cycles carried out recently on the water inside the wreck have not given any particular cause for concern. Nevertheless, as a precautionary measure, so as to prevent any possible damage to the marine environment prior to the so-called “parbuckling”, or rotation of the ship into an upright position, about 4000 cubic meters of water was pumped out of the vessel in way of the laundries and the store and provision rooms.

At the same time, a great deal of attention has been paid to the sea bed not only on the worksite but all the way along the east coast of the island. Important flora and fauna like the Posidonia meadows and coral formations (habitats protected by the European Union) have been mapped and are continuously monitored to verify their state of health. To date, only in the area of the worksite have changes to the state of the sea bed been detected, whereas elsewhere there has been no sign of any alteration.

Before the commencement of parbuckling, work was also carried out – between the middle of August and early September 2013 – on the removal of the layer of sediment that had accumulated on the sea bed in the area between the wreck and the coast: approximately 2500 cubic meters of water and sediment was treated and removed. Isola del Giglio is currently one of the most closely monitored areas anywhere in the Mediterranean. So as to ensure that the salvage project is carried out while minimizing the environmental impact, the different bodies charged with environmental supervision – both by the Observatory (ARPAT, Tuscan Regional Environmental Protection Agency and ISPRA, Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) and by Costa Crociere (Università 
Sapienza di Roma and the company D’Appolonia) – are conducting continual checks throughout the area in question.

The monitoring not only addresses the impact of the operations on the marine environment, but also analyses the quality of the air and noise pollution levels, and surveys the state of the island’s terrestrial (natural and architectural) heritage.

Watch amberjacks around a template in an official Parbuckling project video.