“Sea snot” clogs up the Marmara Sea

IT LOOKS AS bad as it sounds. Over the past couple of months, a thick, foamy layer of marine mucilage, popularly known as “sea snot”, has spread over swathes of Turkey’s Marmara Sea near Istanbul, disrupting fishing and tourism and killing marine life. A cleanup effort, the biggest in Turkey’s history, is underway. Ships are corralling the muck, which is secreted by phytoplankton (marine algae), using floating barriers. Workers are hoovering it up from the surface. The government has pledged to save the Marmara by improving wastewater treatment.