Agriculture and Forestry Ministry

In the face of a recent mucilage threat, Turkey will clean up the entire Sea of Marmara in part by declaring it a protected
conservation area, the Turkish president said on June 9. 

Turkey on June 8 will start a huge cleanup campaign to save the Sea of Marmara from excessive algae, according to the Environment and Urbanization Ministry.

The General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks (DKMP), an affiliate of the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry, has announced increased fines for the illegal hunting of wild animals in the 2021-22 hunting season.

The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry has revoked the mining license of Alamos Gold, a Canadian-based intermediate gold producer, on the grounds that the firm's license to mine gold in Kaz Mountains was not extended.

Cultivation areas across Turkey have narrowed dramatically over the recent years, while hikes in food prices on a global scale are making it harder to import agricultural products, a former official has warned.

Solaklar Rock Houses, built by Phrygians 3,200 years ago in the northwestern province of Bolu's Seben district and survived to this day, offer visitors a journey to the past away from the crowd during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

A 10-day ban has been imposed on commercial fishing of anchovy with all kinds of fishing gear as they have not reached the desired size, according to a written statement issued by the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry.

"The number of undersized anchovies has risen in the Istanbul Strait and the Black Sea," according to the statement issued on Jan. 7.

Fishermen using cast nets in the depths of the Bosphorus Strait and close to its shores on big fishing boats are threatening marine wildlife, experts have warned.

The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry permits industrial fishing at 24 meters of depth offshore and in seas, but fishermen have been throwing nets from their large fishing boats close to the banks of the Bosphorus Strait.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has warned residents to use water more efficiently as water levels in the city's dams decreased to 24.4 percent, almost half of the rate in the same month last year.

The reason for this sharp fall was the lack of rain in November, the municipality said.

Water levels were at 45.27 percent in the same month last year.

Fishermen will be rewarded with 5 Turkish Liras (60 cents) for every tail of toadfish, which is an invasive species growing rapidly in the Aegean and the Mediterranean Seas, they bring to support biodiversity, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry announced on Dec. 1.