Bodies of water

Two Iranian destroyers, sent to the Gulf of Aden to protect commercial ships, have reached the entrance of Bab el-Mandab, a strategic strait between Yemen and Djibouti, Iran's navy said April 30.

By James Mackenzie & Robin Emmott

The European Union proposed doubling the size of its Mediterranean search and rescue operations on Monday, as the first bodies were brought ashore of as many as 900 people feared killed in the deadliest known shipwreck of migrants trying to reach Europe.

Government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis on Sunday called for action concerning dangerous refugee and migrant crossings in the Mediterranean following the tragic shipwreck claiming hundreds of lives in the waters south of Italy.

In a written announcement, he stated

Italian navy and coast guard ships rescued around 1,500 migrants aboard five boats in the southern Mediterranean in less than 24 hours, officials said on April 5.
   
All of the migrants were rescued on Saturday by two coast guard ships and one navy ship in five separate operations, the coast guard said in a statement.
   

Turkey's coast guard units have fired on a rogue cargo ship in the Dardanelles Strait before capturing hundreds of migrants inside.

The 59 meters long cargo ship, named "Do?an Kartal," ignored the security forces' calls to stop off the Gallipoli peninsula on March 12. 

More than 300 migrants were feared drowned on Feb. 11 after their overcrowded dinghies sank in the Mediterranean, the latest boat disaster on the perilous crossing from Africa to Europe.
      
The victims were among migrants mainly from sub-Saharan Africa who had left the coast of Libya at the weekend in four small boats, the UN refugee agency said.
      

A development agency is aiming to establish a "Blue Route" in the eastern Black Sea of Turkey with the aim of introducing new tourism alternatives to the region, which has recently witnessed a boost in the number of local and foreign tourists.

Experts of marine life have called authorities to protect 15 kilometers along the southeastern Marmara Sea coast around Karabiga, where five new coal plants are in or pending construction, to protect endangered specimens of Mediterranean seals.

A total of 12,872 migrants trying to cross into Greece from Turkey over the Aegean Sea were captured by Turkish Coast Guard Command teams in 524 separate incidents in 2014, while 74 people were also arrested on charges of smuggling migrants, Anadolu Agency has reported. 

Three seamen were missing, feared drowned after a Turkish-registered merchant ship sank off Italy Sunday following a collision with another vessel in rough seas, coastguards said.