Italy's dolphin population is set for an annual check-up, as a group of students and marine biologists take to the seas to monitor the health and numbers of the country's cetaceans.
The Environment Ministry-backed campaign surveys 1,500 miles of Italian coastline in eight different regions, looking at dolphins in 15 national parks and protected areas.
Now in its fifth year, the dolphin monitoring initiative uses a boat owned by Italy's student travel agency CTS to carry volunteers around the Mediterranean as they map developments among the country's marine life.
For the first time this year, participants will also be looking at Italy's shark population, with a particular focus on vulnerable species such as the white shark and the basking shark.
Another key addition is a "dolphin-friendly" rating for local municipal authorities, the results of which will be announced at the end of summer.
This will see ministry experts and volunteers grade authorities in their efforts to safeguard local marine life.
A number of environmental organizations, including the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Tethys Cetacean Monitoring Institute, have warned that dolphin, whale and shark populations around Italy's coasts have dropped in recent years.
They blame the fishing industry for a reduction in food sources due to over-fishing and indiscriminate fishing techniques, particularly the use of driftnets.
Although officially outlawed by the European Union in 2002, environmentalists say they continue to be used, either openly or covertly, in several countries.
Dubbed the "walls of death" by critics, the nets are left to drift at sea entangling everything that swims into them, including non-targeted fish, dolphins, whales and sea turtles, which die as a result.
Before the ban, an estimated 8,000 dolphins died every year because of the nets.
Speaking at the presentation of the monitoring project, Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio pointed to loopholes in current laws and said more legislation was needed to protect dolphins from the continued threat posed by driftnets.
"Authorities must be allowed to confiscate all banned nets they find - not just when they are being used but also when they are simply found on board," he said.
Despite the shrinking cetacean population, Italian environmentalists are doing their best to help the country's marine life.
In addition to organizing numerous studies and seeking to reduce dangerous pollution, Italy has been a driving force in creating the Mediterranean's only marine mammal sanctuary, which is headquartered in the port city of Genoa.
The sanctuary, which stretches for over 10 square kilometres in international waters, was set up by Italy, France and Monaco in order to protect and encourage the growth of dolphins, whales and other marine life.
The area has long had a natural cetaceous population far greater than that elsewhere in the Mediterranean, prompting Italy to formally propose the idea of a sanctuary in 1998.
As well as fishing and shipping restrictions, the governments concerned are also seeking to monitor and limit pollution levels through a series of public and private initiatives.
