The beach of Porto Giunco is located in the municipal territory of Villasimius and is included within the SCI (Site of Community Interest) and the Marine Protected Area “Capo Carbonara”, which has the task of protecting the marine and coastal environment, thus the all animals and vegetation present, through rules of behavior and use.
Porto Giunco beach is a beach well recognizable by the presence of the Notteri pond and the ancient 16th century (1578) Spanish tower used as a watchtower.
The beach is formed by a long tongue of sand separating the sea from the pond, and for this very reason it is also often called “beach of the two seas.”
The Notteri pond is a body of water formed by rainfall and sea water that overflows the sand tongue during winter swells.
The latter allow the entry of fish and other organisms that will become food for the birds that frequent the pond.
At different times of the year it is possible to observe pink flamingos.
They are up to five feet tall, with very long necks, walk majestically in the shallow water and with their curved beaks search the bottom to catch small organisms on which they feed.
Also in the Notteri pond, other birds can be seen such as the stilt-bird, small elegant white-winged waders, or the plover, a funny and cuddly small bird, gray-brown in color with slender, elongated legs.
Porto Giunco beach like most beaches consists of three main areas:
- The emerged beach formed by the dunes and the beach that is not washed by the sea;
- the intermediate beach that is periodically submerged and uncovered by the waters and where we can often find large numbers of shells and parts of posidonia seedlings;
- the submerged beach the one that lies below the sea.
In the inner edge of the beach, where storm waves never arrive, vegetation can grow that can withstand the brackish environment.
Sand accumulates here because the branches and leaves of the plants “comb” the wind and cause the grains that the wind itself moves to fall to the ground, creating mounds of sand called dunes.
Some of these plants have very beautiful flowers such as the sea lily others are more bushy but very important as they serve to hold and protect the dune.
Looking at a beach one immediately realizes that the portion in direct contact with the sea, the foreshore, is always devoid of vegetation; in fact, the environmental conditions here do not allow for life because of wave motion.
In this strip of beach all the debris carried by the waves accumulates but also organic remains such as shells, cuttlefish bone, dead leaves of posidonia.
The best-known inhabitants of the sea are undoubtedly fish, which lead an aquatic life by breathing with gills and swimming with fins with which they are more or less all equipped.
In addition to fish, one can also find algae, which can be of many types and so different from each other, first and foremost in size.
There are tiny algae, free in the sea and carried by currents, and fixed algae that usually grow on the rocky seabed.
We can also find submarine plants, which are also very important, contributing to the oxygenation of the water and thus to sea life.
The most famous underwater plant is posidonia, which forms real grasslands under the seabed.
It just like all plants blooms and bears fruit, similar to small olives that come off the plant and are carried by the current so they can grow in other parts of the sea.
Posidonia meadows are also very important because they provide an ideal environment for other living species, animals and plants.
