Mar Piccolo of Taranto

The Mar Piccolo is an inner, semi-enclosed sea located on the North of the town of Taranto showing lagoon features. It has a surface area of 20.72 Km2 and is divided into two smaller inlets, called the First and the Second Inlet, which have a maximum depth of 12 and 8 m, respectively. Due to the strong anthropogenic impact, most of hard substrata are artificial. The lagoon features of the Mar Piccolo are mainly due to the presence of 34 submarine freshwater springs (locally called "Citri").