Fondali di Taormina – Isola Bella

The seabeds of Taormina, along the eastern coast of Sicily, offer a variety of morphologies: the cliffs of Isola Bella, Capo Taormina, Capo S. Andrea and the landslides of large rocks that slope down to depths of up to 60 meters. Between the island and the headlands, there are two gravel and sand beaches that continue underwater with extensive areas of fine sand. In just a few square kilometers, the marine vegetation diversifies due to the variety of substrates: Posidonia oceanica builds structured meadows on mobile substrates, on rocky surfaces there are photophilic populations of various Cystoseira species; deeper there are dichotomous populations, a type of brown algae. Despite not conforming to the typical Mediterranean zonation, the biodiversity of hard substrate plant populations in the infralittoral zone is high.