Summer on the Emerald Coast. How to solve the problem of boat overtourism.

I had the privilege of anchoring at Piscine (between the islands of Budelli, Razzoli and Santa Maria) in northern Sardinia in mid-August with a dozen boats at most.

Summer on the Emerald Coast. How to solve the problem of boat overtourism.

Credit to my age, it was the early 1970s.

This summer, more than 50 years later, there were hundreds of boats anchored in what is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, one of those that leave you breathless and make you remember how wonderful it is to live on our planet. Nature’s paradises, like the Himalayan range in Nepal or St. Mark’s Square in Venice, for example. Even in these places, like the Sardinian Pools, fifty years ago at Ferragosto you would meet dozens of people and not thousands as today.

The world has changed, we need to adapt. Tourism even by sea is growing by leaps and bounds. And it cannot be stopped.

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The usual campaign of the rich overcrowding the seas

That is why it hurts me when, as happens practically every summer, the usual newspaper, social and television media campaign against the recreational boats of the rich defacing the environment, disrespectful of every rule strong on the power of money, started right in the middle of August.

This time a false image was used to give breath to the boorish summer media campaign against boating.

It all stemmed from a 2018 photo passed off as a shot of this summer 2025 in Sardinia. You can see it at the top of this page.

Big accused on media, television, social the overcrowding of boats in the stretch of coast from Olbia to Santa Teresa di Gallura that causes irreparable damage to the marine ecosystem.

All artfully constructed, passing off as true what is false. So, the situation has definitely improved from 2018 to the present.

The solution to overtourism is there. New rules at marine parks

But the problem exists and there would be a solution. It would be enough to give new rules and infrastructure to Marine Parks, such as precisely that of La Maddalena, which “protects” 5,100 hectares of islands and islets plus 15,046 of marine area with 180 km of coastline from the Straits of Bonifacio to the island of Mortorio.

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We make our own the proposals of the Northeast Sardinia Boat Operators Association, here they are:

– Prohibition of landing on strands except by swimming, to protect dunes and pioneer vegetation

– Increase in the park entrance fee and especially change in the methods of revenue control

– Ban on anchoring mega boats, as is already the case in France

– Carbon tax on heat engines to fund an environmental watchdog corps

– Equal rules for all: local, national operators and private tourists

– set up buoys by limiting the use of anchors, so as to preserve the seabed and thus limit the maximum number of boats that can stay.

We at the Sailing Newspaper have been arguing for years that the more than 30 national Marine Parks, guardians of paradises that only Italy possesses in the world, are a treasure that needs to be reformed, adapting it to the new demands of nautical tourism.

More open to recreational boats, but with simple rules that protect the environment, so that they can be enjoyed not by a privileged few who have free access to areas that are prohibited today, but by everyone. Staying in the Mediterranean, France, Spain, Croatia have already done this successfully. Italy can and must do this, for boaters and for the state coffers. Nautical tourism is a national asset that must be enhanced. But until there is a true national plan, it will remain at the mercy of the incompe tents.

Luca Oriani