For more than six months now, parts of the Sea of Marmara along Turkey’s coast have been covered in a thick layer of glop known as mucilage, or “sea snot.” Pollution, warmer temperatures, and other environmental factors appear to have resulted in a proliferation of phytoplankton, which are releasing an “overabundance of mucus.” Government workers have been trying to clean up some of the worst-hit areas as biologists and environmentalists have expressed alarm. Below, you’ll find a recent collection of sea-snot images; for the complete story, read “A Slimy Calamity Is Creeping Across the Sea” by our own Sarah Zhang.
Photos: Turkey’s Sea-Snot Disaster
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This aerial photograph, taken from above the Caddebostan shore of Turkey's Marmara Sea, shows boats moving through a patch of mucilage, or sea snot, on June 8, 2021. #
Yasin Akgul / AFP / Getty -
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Members of the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization cleaning team work to remove sea snot from a harbor in the Marmara Sea on June 10, 2021, in Istanbul. #
Chris McGrath / Getty -
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