The shallow waters of the Venetian lagoon in the pics by Selina Zampedri, Sabión's "mamy"

Venice - South Lagoon

#Venice #LagoonCalling #DURIIBANCHI #Venezia
#NoContorta

Selina Zampedri takes wonderful pics during her trips on a kayak through the Venetian lagoon: she enjoys exploring salt marshes, islands and shallow waters.
Sea anemones with green or turquoise winding tentacles. Ascidias whose "eyes" seem to be painted in dazzling colours. Sabellas spallanzanii protuding from the mud with their long tentacles as orange as the sun. Small sea stars peeping out in between green, red and brown algaes.
Rhizostomae swimming through prairies of zosteras, an aquatic plant species that is an important member of the ecosystem because it helps to physically form the habitat and it plays a crucial role for many other species.

Sabión

From Selina's compact waterproof camera we got the pic of a green tough crab, who was immediately named Sabión. He became the mascot of the subscribers of international petition Stop the plan to dredge the maxi-canal Contorta, before it's too late!  which was launched on change.org by Gruppo25Aprile: more than 26,000 people from all over the world subscribed it in less than three weeks, while during the last week Selina and many other volunteers have been collecting subscriptions by several hundreds people at fixed points in Mestre and in Venice, waiting for the Regatta.

I am learning a lot about the hidden underwater habitat from the pictures that Selina Zampedri generously posts in the Facebook group she created with Stefano Barzizza, I luoghi meno noti di Venezia e della sua laguna. In two years the group members became more than 12,000: many of them post images, stories by old people, what they learn in Venice day by day, what they search in libraries or in the web. What holds the group together is the love for Venice, for the lagoon and for its people. "On the FB group wall one can read expressions of the soul of Venetian people, too often restrained by intensive tourism": quoting from the introduction to the first photo exhibition "Collettiva Venezia Viva" opening on September 11 at Festival delle Arti Giudecca - Sacca Fisola.