Travel restrictions and Italy's latest lockdown mean that Venice is almost devoid of tourists and boat traffic is greatly reduced
Credit: Chris Warde-Jones
“In case of further sightings in the lagoon, we would ask everyone to exercise the greatest caution, not to disturb the cetaceans and to report their presence to the coast guard.
“The dolphins did not appear to be in difficulty and after a few minutes left the area, reappearing a little later just inside the Grand Canal,” the coast guard said in a statement.
While dolphins are sometimes spotted in the Venetian lagoon, it is rare for them to come close to normally busy areas such as St Mark’s and the Giudecca Canal.
Venice is almost devoid of international tourists as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with tourism-related businesses such as hotels, restaurants, shops, tour guides and gondoliers saying the impact on their livelihood has been catastrophic.
There were reports of dolphins swimming in Venice’s canals exactly a year ago, during Italy’s first lockdown, but they turned out to be fake news.
Images of Venice were spliced with footage of dolphins off the coast of Sardinia, hundreds of miles away.
Свежие комментарии