From overhead, the sea slime that has gripped great swathes of the Marmara Sea in recent weeks has a creamy sheen, as if the water has been given a smooth protective coating. But up close, the marine mucilage is gloopy and foul, and it’s easy to see how its slimy film poses a threat to all variety of marine life.
Scientists say the Marmara’s climate change-driven temperature increase of 2-2.25°C this century is likely to have worsened the outbreak. They also say local activity – increased pollution, overfishing, greater industrial and farm run-off and tons of untreated sewage from the 20 million people living around the sea – played a part.
After decades of rapid urbanisation and rampant construction across Turkey’s cultural and financial capital, it’s no surprise that Istanbul’s weakened ecosystem is more susceptible to shocks. As the city’s mayor in the 90s, Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaned green, improving waste management, proposing congestion pricing and switching buses to natural gas. He described plans to build a third bridge across the Bosphorus as “murder for the city”.
But as the country’s leader since 2003, he has overseen a massive construction boom, including tunnels under the Bosphorus, the world’s largest airport and that third bridge. “We are connecting continents,” he said at its 2016 inauguration. “With God’s permission, this country will get what it deserves.”
Millions of trees and several water basins were destroyed for those megaprojects and to make way for countless housing developments and gated communities along Istanbul’s periphery. A look at satellite images from 2002, when Mr Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power, and from today highlights the massive shift, from predominantly green to mostly khaki, particularly along the Marmara.
Istanbul’s population has doubled since 2000, from 8 to 16 million, and we may be witnessing the slow-motion desertification of one of the world’s great cities. Eight years ago, as construction peaked, I wrote: “Scientists and planners estimate that the elimination of forests and water reservoirs required for Istanbul’s ongoing and planned projects will leave the city heavily polluted and gasping for water within a decade.”
In January, following a drought, Istanbul had only enough water left for 45 days. Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu urged locals to take shorter showers, turn off the tap while brushing teeth and install low-use taps. Spring rains rescued Istanbulites, but now the city and the region face an unprecedented assault of sea slime that points toward darker days ahead.
The mucilage is made up of bits of faeces and fragments of dead plants and animals combined with millions of micro-organisms such as phytoplankton. Outbreaks are not uncommon in the Mediterranean, as witnessed in Italy in 2007, but they are rarely this bad. Like a sick person with a runny nose, one Canadian oceanographer described extreme events like Turkey’s as “a call for help” from the system.
Thick, viscous fluid ‘sea snot’ produced by phytoplankton clogs up the Marmara sea shoreline in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 4, 2021. AFP
A man takes pictures of the Marmara sea covered by sea snot in Istanbul. EPA
Sea snot, or mucilage, was first documented in Turkey's waters in 2007. AFP
Experts say sea snot will occur more often because of global warming. AFP
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised on Saturday, June 5, to rescue the Marmara Sea from the outbreak of "sea snot". AP
Sea snot poses a threat to the fishing industry and the environment, marine biologists said. AFP
Untreated waste dumped into the Marmara Sea and climate change caused the sea snot bloom, Turkish authorities said. AFP
Water temperatures in the Marmara sea are 2.5 degrees above the average of the last 40 years. EPA
To their credit, Turkey's leaders have responded. Last week Mr Erdogan vowed to rid the Marmara of the slimy scourge and declare the sea a conservation area. The government launched a massive 22-point clean-up campaign across seven provinces, acknowledging that the clean-up could take five years. The government also aims to cut pollution and properly treat the region's wastewater, rather than treating the Marmara like a "cesspool", as the head of the Marmara Municipalities' Union said last week.
Is it too little too late? Marmara fishing has already been sharply curtailed, and last week a blast of sea slime clogged the Black Sea port of Yalikoy in Ordu province, 800 kilometres from Istanbul. A major outbreak in the Black Sea would threaten the main source of Turkey’s fishing industry.
Researchers from the Institute of Marine Sciences at Turkey's Middle East Technical University have said the slime stretches as far as 30 metres below the surface. It can carry viruses and bacteria, such as deadly E Coli, which is why Turkey has closed area beaches, cutting further into an already troubled tourist season. Locals reported last week that swimming in Erdek, one of the Marmara’s top beach destinations, is down at least 40 per cent from last year, which was already significantly below normal due to the pandemic.
More problematic is Turkey's embrace of construction and development at all costs. Rather than finding ways to conserve water and protect reservoirs, Turkey has built hundreds of dams in recent years, such as the Tigris dam that submerged the ancient city of Hasankeyf last year, eviscerating the local economy.
Many of Turkey’s largest cities also faced water shortages this year, including Izmir, Ankara and Bursa. To address Istanbul’s long-standing water shortages, the AKP-run administration began construction on the $270m Melen dam in 2014, but inspectors found cracks in the basin in 2018, delaying completion until at least 2023.
An old cemetery in Hasankeyf, which will be significantly submerged by the Ilisu Dam, with new Hasankeyf in the background. Reuters
New mines threaten rich ecosystems and cultural heritage across Turkey. In March, developers proposed a 100-hectare marble quarry near the ancient village of Tire, along the Aegean, an agricultural district known for its red pines. Locals in Ikizdere, in Mr Erdogan’s childhood province of Rize, along the Black Sea, have been battling the proposed construction of a massive stone quarry. In December, locals in Nevsehir province filed a lawsuit against a Canadian firm for illegal drilling for gold in forested lands. In Canakkale province, just south of the Marmara, local protests halted a $1 billion mining project on Mount Ida in October 2019 after forests had been razed to clear space for the mine.
Turkey, the only G20 country apart from the US that has yet to ratify the 2015 Paris agreement, is in part responsible for eco-destruction beyond its borders. Last week, Kurdish officials and locals in northern Iraq accused Turkey and its affiliates of significant environmental damage due to the forests cleared to build 80 military checkpoints and connecting roads. Even worse, Iraqis face a severe water shortage this summer because the construction of nearly two dozen Turkish dams on the Tigris and Euphrates has reduced water flow into Iraq by more than 40 per cent in recent decades. And the worst may be still to come. Mr Erdogan has vowed to break ground this month on an Istanbul canal parallel to the Bosphorus that the government says would decrease accident risk and generate $5bn in annual revenue. However, scientists argue that it would further imperil the Bosphorus and Marmara Sea and undermine ecosystems from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
The canal would significantly expand provincial deforestation and industrial run-off. Looking at horrifying images of sea slime in recent days, it’s hard to imagine a clearer sign that the one thing greater Istanbul cannot tolerate at the moment is one of the largest construction projects in the country’s history.
David Lepeska is a Turkish and Eastern Mediterranean affairs columnist for The National
A farm worker puts down irrigation pipes in a parched field near the town of Karapinar, in Konya province, Central Anatolia, Turkey. All pictures Getty Images
Farm workers tend a sugar beet field near Karapinar. Sugar beet consumes a lot of water, due to its long growth period.
Farmers Cafer Ungor, left, and Ferhat Altintas add fertiliser to water extracted from their groundwater well. Two years of extreme drought has forced farmers to tap in to underground sources to sustain their crops.
An aerial view shows salt deposits in Meke Lake, near Karapinar. The volcanic crater lake, which was created by an eruption four million years ago, dried out in 2020.
An aerial view reveals how little water remains around Lake Meke, its volcanic cone looming over the receding pools. Drought and groundwater extraction have caused it to dry out.
As Lake Meke dried up, the water became increasingly saline, with crystallisation occurring and salt deposits forming.
Farm workers tend a sugar beet field. Konya province is the heart of Turkey's agriculture sector, but extreme drought over the past two years has taken its toll on farmers and the land.
A field of wheat near Karapinar. Konya province produces more than 2.5 million tonnes of grain a year, but officials predict this will drop by 5.5 per cent in 2021, due to drought.
Farmers Hayri Kalkan, left, and Niyazi Ibrahimi add fertiliser to extracted groundwater for irrigation. Drought and the depletion of groundwater has raised questions over whether agriculture is sustainable in parts of Konya.
Tending to sugar beet in Karapinar. Extracting water to sustain crop has caused the water table in the area to drop by two metres.
Farm workers tend sugar beet in parched field fields. As underground water levels fall, this creates cavities into which surface material collapses, creating hundreds of sinkholes around Karapinar.
A low sun over the dried out Lake Meke. In the past, the lake was renowned for its rich array of wildfowl.
The salt-encrusted expanses of the dried out Lake Meke. While the lake had been home to more than 100 species of bird, by 2015, as the waters receded and become brackish, they were gone.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened. He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia. Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”. Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
An arms embargo
A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
2004 - Rahul Dravid (IND) ; 2005 - Jacques Kallis (SA) and Andrew Flintoff (ENG); 2006 - Ricky Ponting (AUS); 2007 - Ricky Ponting; 2008 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI); 2009 - Mitchell Johnson (AUS); 2010 - Sachin Tendulkar (IND); 2011 - Jonathan Trott (ENG); 2012 - Kumar Sangakkara (SL); 2013 - Michael Clarke (AUS); 2014 - Mitchell Johnson; 2015 - Steve Smith (AUS); 2016 - Ravichandran Ashwin (IND); 2017 - Virat Kohli (IND); 2018 - Virat Kohli; 2019 - Ben Stokes (ENG); 2021 - Shaheen Afridi
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024. It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine. Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages]. The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts. With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians. Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved. Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world. The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Ali Kashief, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdelrahman, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Mohmmed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammad Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Eisa, Mohammed Shakir, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Adel Al Hosani, Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah), Waleed Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Mahrami (Baniyas)
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- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
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- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Born: Kuwait in 1986
Family: She is the youngest of seven siblings
Time in the UAE: 10 years
Hobbies: audiobooks and fitness: she works out every day, enjoying kickboxing and basketball
Tips for SMEs to cope
Adapt your business model. Make changes that are future-proof to the new normal
Make sure you have an online presence
Open communication with suppliers, especially if they are international. Look for local suppliers to avoid delivery delays
Open communication with customers to see how they are coping and be flexible about extending terms, etc
Courtesy: Craig Moore, founder and CEO of Beehive, which provides term finance and working capital finance to SMEs. Only SMEs that have been trading for two years are eligible for funding from Beehive.
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), EsekaiaDranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), JaenBotes (Exiles), KristianStinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), EmosiVacanau (Harlequins), NikoVolavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), ThinusSteyn (Exiles)
