The facility

Veterinary clinic

The Rescue Centre has a veterinary room equipped with an operating theatre, darkroom and digital X-ray unit, which  makes it possible to develop the X-rays of animals undergoing treatment by the Centre’s vet; and all the specialist laboratory equipment: microscope, microhaematocrit centrifuge, serum centrifuge, autoclave, scales and examination table.

Tank rooms

On the ground floor of the Osservatorio del Mare there are two rooms, each fitted with 3 modular tanks, for housing injured animals or those in need of care. One of them is closed to visitors, so that suffering animals are spared further stress. All the tanks have a seawater filtration and purification system, with an outlet pipe discharging directly into the sea. A seawater intake pump has been installed in the bay next to the Centre to fill the recovery tanks. 

Interactive exhibition

On the first floor of the Osservatorio del Mare there is an interactive exhibition illustrating the various activities carried out by the CRAMA Association: the project to protect and restock the European spiny lobster, cetacean monitoring within the Asinara Island Marine Protected Area, and the stages of rescue, diagnosis, treatment and release of sea turtles found in difficulty in our area. At the exhibition you can also try to reproduce some of the technical and practical procedures carried out by the association, in particular recording biometric data from spiny lobsters and effort data from cetacean monitoring, including the photo-identification of animals sighted during trips at sea. 

Bay

Most of the turtles admitted are seriously injured after being hit by fishing gear or boats, or are weakened and malnourished because of unfavourable environmental conditions. This often means a very long recovery period, and rehabilitation is therefore needed before the animals can be returned to the wild in areas suited to their survival. Hence the need to find a stretch of sea that could serve as a rehabilitation area for sea turtles. The stretch of sea chosen for this purpose lies in front of the building by the small pier of the same name, covers 485 m² and is about 100 metres from the Centre’s premises. It has been named the "Baia delle Tartarughe" (Turtle Bay).