The Sarno, known as Sarnus to the Romans, is a stream that passes through Pompeii to the south of the Italian city of Naples. It is considered the most polluted river in Europe.
Seal Island, South Africa. As the name suggests, Seal Island located in the False Bay off the southern coast of South Africa, is home to Cape Fur seals. They chatter, fight, and defecate around the barren rocks in the island, thereby making it a very smelly place.
A bald and astounding police statistic comes back to me every time I look into its steely waters: along the 213-mile long Thames, a body is retrieved from the river on average every week. The majority (39 last year) are found in the London area.
And the latest figures are alarming: only 14% of England's rivers are classified as being of 'good' ecological status, according to a government report published in January 2022.
The river Thames in London was so starved of oxygen in August 2022, due to sewage and hot weather, that it was effectively on life support, New Scientist can reveal. A specialised boat was used to directly inject the gas into the water for 11 days that month to prevent plants and fish dying.
Between Teddington and Chelsea the tidal Thames is freshwater, from Chelsea downstream it becomes more mixed (brackish) until it becomes a marine environment below Greenwich. This change in salt levels impacts the types of fish and wildlife you find in different stretches of the river.