The temperature of the Italian seas (and beyond) is rising. The alarm comes from Greenpeace with the latest report from the “Warm Sea” project which reveals how «even the Italian seas continue to warm, with heat waves up to 40 meters deep, necrosis or bleaching phenomena on gorgonians and corals, and the expansion of thermophilic and alien species».
Read more Caporalato, backlogged complaints in Milan from construction sites to restaurants
Ask the Sun
The questions are automatically suggested by 24Ore AI
based on the content viewed.
14 monitoring stations
The starting point of the report, the data collected in 2025 at 14 Italian monitoring stations, 13 of which in Marine Protected Areas, with underwater thermometers and periodic monitoring. The period is the third year, according to Copernicus data, the warmest ever recorded globally, with an average surface air temperature of 14.97° degrees, +1.48° degrees above pre-industrial levels.
A constant effort that saw the environmental organization operate with the support of the Department of Earth, Environment, and Life Sciences of the University of Genoa, the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics, and the Department of Biomolecular Sciences of the University of Urbino.
Read more Japan, magnitude 7.1 earthquake: explosion in shopping mall, people trapped
Photo Greenpeace
The Mediterranean is changing
«The Mediterranean is changing rapidly and the effects of warming no longer only concern the sea surface – highlights Valentina Di Miccoli, Sea campaigner for Greenpeace Italy -. Today we observe thermal anomalies reaching the deepest habitats and directly affecting the health of marine ecosystems, even in marine protected areas».
In Sardinia +3.5 degrees
The maximum anomaly of the sea surface temperature, +3.5° degrees above the climatological threshold, was recorded in Sardinia between late May and July 2025 in the Marine Protected Area of the Island of Asinara, during a heat wave lasting 41 days. Other major anomalies were recorded in Sardinia in the marine protected areas of Capo Carbonara Sardinia and Tavolara, with +3.46° degrees above average. Then in the Sicilian ones of Capo Milazzo with +2.94° degrees, and Plemmirio with +2.71° degrees. «The heat accumulated in summer on the sea surface – the report emphasizes – was also transferred to depth, through the mixing of the water column due to the wind, registering temperatures up to 25° degrees at 30-40 meters deep and exposing organisms living on rocky seabeds to strong stress».
Read more Italy’s EU infringements at the top for 4 years: 80 open cases
