New danger to life below water: COVID-19 waste

According to a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), plastic waste equivalent to 33,880 plastic bottles enters the Mediterranean each minute. Most of the plastic waste washes up on the shores of Italy and Turkey. The medical waste from the pandemic reached the seas due to the human factor and wind. While the world’s plastic and garbage pose a great danger to our seas, medical waste, a new concern, points to bigger problems and irreversible environmental pollution. Turkish national free diver Şahika Ercümen dives into the Bosphorus after becoming a UNDP aquatic life advocate.