Life Fin: a project to save the mega mollusk

Breeding Pinna nobilis to repopulate the seabed. That’s the goal of Life Pinna, the project starting at five sites (one on the Italian coast, one in Slovenia) to save the so-called nacchera, the Mediterranean’s largest bivalve mollusk.

Once widespread, it is now an endangered species: in fact, it is in critical danger of extinction after an epidemic decimated its populations beginning in 2016. The primary goal of the project is to monitor and protect surviving individuals but also to develop captive breeding techniques to repopulate specific areas with disease-resistant individuals.