Imagine you are a fisherman quietly out at sea last night, three miles off shore, you cast your nets out hoping to pull in a good catch of anchovies. in the morning, at first light, you get up and still yawning go up on deck to haul in the nets. In the distance you see what in the half light you assume is a school of dolphins and decide to head towards them as dolphins often follow shoals of fish. Your boat draws closer and you find not dolphins but instead a herd of wild boar!

That is exactly what happened to Captain Necati Reis who made the headlines this week when he protested a fine of 1431YTL levied by the local Environment and Forestry Commission because he brought one of the pigs out of the water and onto his boat. According to them he had contravened two laws, No 5199 for the Protection of Animals and No 4915 about Hunting on Land. Necati is almost as confused as when he saw the swine swimming by; ‘I don’t undestand what the fine is for?’.

The director of the Environment and Forestry Commission, Selahattin Aydın, points to the photo of the trussed porker that the Captain took as a keepsake and explains; ‘We contacted the Ministry for instructions and they told us that because he tied the animal up he had contravened two laws, the photograph is the proof’. Necati remains amazed; ‘We only took one pig and how could we get it out of the water without ropes?’

Flotsam and jetsam are a constant of sea life and surrounded by water on three sides Turkey has more than its fair share of all manner of things washed up. Perhaps the most common, unfortunately, are dead bodies of whom the instances are to numerous to mention but other items, some more mundane and others much more intriguing also appear.

In April 2006 a flotilla of barrels first spooted at sea near Tuzla washed up on the beach at Karasu in the Sakarya area. Upon examination twelve of the fifteen were found to contain poisonous and carcinogenic industrial waste. in the same month eight barrels were found half buried in the sand near Büyükçekmece in Istanbul, each contained a stiff jelly like blue material. A year later on the Black Sea at Zonguldak three more barrels came ashore, a security cordon was swiflty established around them and workers from the local Environment and Forestry Commission came down to examine them. In the end they proved to be no more than three empty fuel oil containers, most likely dumped from a ship. The appearance of waste products like these is regrettably frequent. It is a well known fact that many small factories who complain that the legal ways of getting rid of effluent are too expensive often dump into the sea.

Larger items found, like the container that was spotted of the Rize coast at on the 8th of January this year, are tested for radioactive materials and dangerous gases and, if found to be safe, are turned over to the Coast Guard. Obviously dangerous items like the unexploded mine found only 300m from shore at a depth of 10m by the Professional Divers Club of Trabzon in October 2006 are dealt with again by the Coast Guard and where necessary by the Navy’s special divers.

Dead animals are reported infrequently and generally only the larger species become worthy of reports. On the same day as Capatin Necati received his swine fine a dead Caretta Caretta turtle washed up on the beach in Mersin. A rare and protected species in Turkey and highly regarded, the death of one of these long lived and intelligent reptiles is always mourned and their corpses warrant autopsies to try to discover the cause of death. Dolphins are also loved by Turks and almost every year they make the news when a school appears in the Bosphorous. The news in March 2007 was not so good when one was found dead on Samatya beach. The dolphin measured 1.5m and the cause of death appeared to be from wounds and blows to the head and belly.  

After the boar perhaps the oddest animal reported in Turkish waters was a 5m long Python Molorus found in Antalya in January 2006. The Molorus is also known as the Burmese Python and is another rare and endangered species. They grow up to 6m in length and are not native to Turkey. Selami Tomruk, founder of Tekirova Ecopark offered an intriguing explanation of how the huge snake may have ended up dead on a beach in Kemer; ‘There are many hotels and nightclubs in this area who employ Russian dancers whose specialities are their dances with snakes. The animals are smuggled into the country and the dancers wrap them round their half naked bodies and then fling them onto the stage as part of their performance. Their internal organs become damaged as a result and infection develops, after a while the snakes stop eating and drinking. İn an effort to extend their working lives their owners force feed them, pushing chicken pieces deep into their bodies. This only increases their pain and they begin to vomit and die shortly after.’ Selami who examined the dead python believed that the serpent had suffered from this treatment as he found pieces of rotted chicken in its guts.

Perhaps the most intriguing find of recent year though was the suspected spy plane that came to rest on a beach in Samsun on the Black Sea in November 2007. A 3m long machine that appeared to be designed for flight was found by local people from Toplu village, they reported the matter to their village headman and he called in the army who cordoned the area off. Experts were called in from the Turkish airforce who first examined and then carried the machine away but not before many people had clearly seen the Russian writing on it. The government and army offered no comment or explanation after the suspected unmanned spy plane was taken away.

In the UK the most recent instance of flotsam that made the news was the much photographed and reported looting of containers that had come off the stranded MSC Napoli (including the infamous 50 BMW motorbikes). The incident brought attention to the Receiver Of Wrecks, the government body responsible for all flotsam and jetsam. The UK rules are that anything found in UK territorial waters must be reported to the reeiver and a form filled in and submitted. The finder can hang on to their salvage and if it is not claimed by its rightful owner within 12 months the goods are theirs.

In Turkey the rules are not so generous to the individual, those finding lost property at sea or on the shore are under an obligation to report it to their nearest harbour master, customs office or coast guard. These civil servants then take charge of the property and post an official notice in all coast guard, customs and harbour master offices accross the country. İf no one comes forward to claim the goods within six months they are turned over to the state who auctions them off at one of their regular customs sales. It must be only a small consolation to the 1431YTL out of pocket Captain Necati that he would have been better off letting his piscine porker go under the hammer.