Molluscs

Off the rocky coast of southeastern Italy, two scuba divers from the financial crimes police bob in and out of the blue waters, under the curious gaze of vacationers.

They're seeking neither buried treasure nor smuggled contraband, but evidence of the hunt for date mussels, a forbidden mollusk turned status symbol whose poaching is indelibly destroying Italy's coastlines.

Every day, fishermen are going out fishing in the Bosphorus to hunt veined rapa whelks, large sea snails that have been touted widely as an antidote to cancer and are popular in Far Eastern countries.

Taner Yıldız, an academic from Istanbul University, told daily Hürriyet that the rapa whelks were significantly valuable, saying their export market value is around $20 million.

Turkey's Environment and Urbanization Ministry has presented a documentary that highlights how invasive species have entered and are endangering local species in the Black and Mediterranean Seas in an effort to raise awareness among the public.

Marine experts have called for urgent action to deal with the dwindling population of the Pinna nobilis, or fan mussel - a large species of Mediterranean clam - in the Aegean due to a killer parasite.