Turkey’s president promised Saturday to rescue the Marmara Sea from an outbreak of “sea snot” that is alarming marine biologists and environmentalists.
A huge mass of marine mucilage, a thick, slimy substance made up of compounds released by marine organisms, has bloomed in Turkey's Marmara, as well as in the adjoining Black and Aegean Seas.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said untreated waste dumped into the Marmara Sea and climate change had caused the sea snot bloom. Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city with some 16 million residents, and five other provinces, factories and industrial hubs border the sea.
Marine mucilage has reached unprecedented levels this year in Turkey. It is visible above the water as a slimy gray sheet along the shores of Istanbul and neighboring provinces. Underwater videos showed suffocated coral covered with sea snot.
Erdogan said he instructed the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization to coordinate with relevant institutions, municipalities and universities. Teams are inspecting waste water and solid waste facilities, along with other potential sources of pollution, he said.
“We will save our seas from this mucilage calamity, leading with the Marmara Sea,” Erdogan said. “We must take this step without delay.”
Marine experts say that human waste and industrial pollution is choking Turkey’s seas. They say the rise in water temperatures from climate change is contributing to the problem.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is quarantining himself at home after his wife exhibited flu-like symptoms. Trudeau's office said Thursday that Sophie Grégoire Trudeau returned from a speaking engagement in Britain and had mild flu-like symptoms, including a low fever late, Wednesday night.
Princess Cruises, which had one of its ships quarantined off the coast of Japan last month, is suspending global operations through early May because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dow drops more than 1,400 points, or 5.9 percent.
Seven-time Grammy Award winner Toni Braxton has partnered with Uncle Bud's CBD brand after finding the substance helped her with pain from her lupus condition.
The international body has developed a two-pronged approach in its battle against incorrect info — partnering with social media platforms to direct users to reliable sources and finding and responding to inaccurate rumors or falsehoods circulating the internet.
Stocks are tumbling again Wednesday, and indexes lost more than 4 percent to wipe out their huge gains from a day earlier as Wall Street keeps reeling on worries about the coronavirus.
World Health Organization declares COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, March 11, 2020.
Lenore Hawkins, chief macro strategist at Tematica Research, told Cheddar from Lake Como, Italy, that the local populace seems to be taking the directives to stay indoors seriously.
The Earth's average temperature last year was about 1.1 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels, second only to the record established in 2016.
