href="http://www.ispraltd.com/news.htm">sophisticated Ispra, equipped to collect samples, images and high-definition films to a depth of 400 meters and can its location at any time. All these activities, conducted through the project on the monitoring of marine biodiversity Calabria (Mo.Bio.Mar.Cal.) Initiated in 2005 and funded by the Assessor for the Environment in Calabria, have had surprising results and are part of the monitoring and research on marine biodiversity, led by the Third Department of Protection of Habitats and Biodiversity ISPRA. Of this research program, which will continue throughout the year 2010, researchers expect to find many rare species including the new species of marine invertebrates. In the Gulf of Lamezia, area particularly interesting from a physical and biological, characterized by numerous colonies of great value as coralligenous algae on rocky bottoms, were observed at about 150 meters depth for the first time in their natural environment-5 colonies of another species of black coral, the rare Antipathes dicotoma. Only 5 copies were collected and studied in the world, the last collected in 1946 in the Bay of Naples was given to the Museum of the American University of Harvard and so far no images of this species was available in the literature. The rocky seabed with depths of between 50 and 450 meters are the least explored area, but still of great importance, both in the presence of rare and protected species whose biology and ecology are virtually unknown, because in these areas, many species of fish and crustaceans of commercial interest are born and grow up. "Understanding how the marine ecosystem and its response to natural changes caused by human activity - said Silvio Greco, Regional Assessor Calabria-is of primary importance for proper management of this complex territory. "The genetic and histological analysis of the Researchers of the Department of Sea Sciences of the Polytechnic University of Marche is continuing on the fragments of these corals reported by the robot" - explains Simonepietro Canese, Head of the Project.