The marine protected Area Santa Maria di Castellabate is a marine reserve of Campania, established in 2009, which covers an area in the sea falling entirely in the town of Castellabate (SA), between the tip and the Bay of Ogliastro Sauco (northern border with the town of Agropoli). The marine protected area is divided into 3 different areas, where each of these is subject to different environmental and conservation regime while taking into account the natural characteristics and the existing socio-economic situation. The area of the marine protected area is rich in plant species. In the depths of Castellabate meet the coral and extensive Posidonia oceanica meadows, in which protect and feed on many species of fish and shellfish. Different animal species inhabit the area marina Cilento coast, some of these very rare: as the Mediterranean parrotfish and Syriella Castellabatensis (a new specimen of crustacean that takes its name from the area discovered the 1975 near Licosa and studied from the Stazione Zoologica a. Dohrn of Naples), but also the madrepores, gorgonians, bryozoans and sponges.