A double-decker round-the-bay boat pulls into the jetty and, once all the passengers have disembarked, all the debris of the trip has to be cleared. So plastic bottles and drink cans are dumped down the side of the jetty to be washed into the sea in the first storm - thus despoiling the waters from which the boatmen make their living. Restaurant boats are tied up around the harbour serving balik ekmek, kebabs, perhaps even burgers. What to do with the used cooking oil? Easy, just tip it over the side of the boat. The fishing and cargo boats, perhaps even the cruisers, dump their waste out at sea, of course, without the crowd of observers. The Mediterranean is a convenient cesspit. This doesn’t only happen in Turkey of course, it happens all round the Med and Turkey may not even be the worst culprit in this.
This all contributes to making the Mediterranean the most polluted sea in the world. Its abuse makes grim. Ever year it swallows an extra 650 million tons sewage; 129 thousand tons of mineral oil; 60 thousand tons of mercury; 3,800 thousand tons of lead; and 36 thousand tons of phosphates to add to the toxic porridge already there. Add to this its marine debris – in particular plastic waste that finds its way into the stomachs of fish, birds, turtles and whales – and we have a zone becoming increasingly hostile to wildlife. A “nice fresh sea bass caught locally this morning” anyone?
Environmentalists calculate that the through-flow of water is so slow that if everyone stopped dumping today, which they won’t, it would take the Med a hundred years to purge itself and become clean again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea#Pollution