Mare Monstrum 2026: 57,000 Coastal Crimes in Italy — So What About the Blue Flags?

In early September 2026, Legambiente published the 28th edition of "Mare Monstrum," its annual audit of environmental crime along the Italian coast. Drawing on data from the Harbour Master's Office and law enforcement across 15 regions and 61 coastal provinces, the picture is of a coastline still under heavy strain: more than 56,800 violations in 2025 alone, split between criminal offences and administrative penalties. At almost the same time of year, a very different list makes headlines — the Blue Flag rankings, the award given to seaside towns for water quality and beach services. Both lists describe the same coast, just from opposite angles, and they don't always agree.

The numbers behind Mare Monstrum 2026

Legambiente reports that in 2025, law enforcement and the Coast Guard confirmed 20,490 criminal offences along Italy's coast — down 20.4% from 2024 — plus another 36,322 administrative violations (-10.3%). That brings the total to 56,812 violations, or roughly 156 a day, better than one every ten minutes. Legambiente is careful to note the drop isn't necessarily good news: part of it likely reflects tougher penalties acting as a deterrent, but part of it also reflects fewer inspections on the ground. Among criminal offences, pollution from illegal dumping and inadequate wastewater treatment tops the list with 7,317 cases (35.7% of the total), followed by illegal construction along the coast with 6,189 offences (30.2%) and illegal fishing with 4,338 violations (21.2%); the remaining 12.9% covers breaches of maritime navigation rules.

Which regions rack up the most coastal crime

Campania leads the regional rankings with over 4,000 confirmed offences, followed by Puglia (2,599), Sicily (2,448) and Calabria (1,929) — together, these four regions account for roughly 53.6% of all crimes recorded nationwide. It's a pattern that shows up year after year in Mare Monstrum, with the South and the regions with the longest coastlines and the deepest history of illegal building consistently topping the list.

How that squares with the 2026 Blue Flag rankings

In that same year, FEE Italia awarded the Blue Flag to 257 coastal and lakeside towns, covering 525 beaches — 14 more flags than in 2025, against just 3 towns that lost theirs. Liguria leads the regional Blue Flag count with 35 towns, followed by Puglia and Calabria, tied at 27 each. That's where the two rankings collide awkwardly: Puglia and Calabria are simultaneously among Italy's most-awarded regions for beach quality and among the top four for confirmed environmental crime on their coastlines. Campania, Italy's worst offender by crime count, sits at a middling 20 Blue Flag towns — on par with Tuscany and the Marche, a placement that doesn't hint at its position at the top of Legambiente's list.

Why the two rankings aren't actually contradictory

A region can rank high on both lists for a simple reason: the Blue Flag certifies specific, applying towns against criteria like bathing water quality, tourist services, wastewater treatment and environmental education — while Mare Monstrum tallies confirmed crimes across the entire regional coastline, including stretches that never applied for the award and aren't geared toward tourism. So a region can have a handful of genuinely excellent, Blue-Flag-worthy beaches while nearby areas deal with illegal construction, unauthorized discharges or poaching that never touch the award-winning towns' scores but still drag down the region's overall crime count.