Is the sea clean in Antalya or is there trash in the water?

Last year travelers staying in the Akke area reported it was very dirty even in the mornings, suggesting the trash issue extends along the whole coastline.

The sea trash problem is now being covered by Turkish media — inspections are being carried out at plastic recycling companies and fines are being issued.

This year the sea is clean (last year some trash occasionally floated in); the first days were calm, then it got windy, but the water stayed clear. Depth starts at around 7-8 meters, entry is small pebbles, and the beach itself is sandy.

The 'Premium' beach (essentially second-line access) was very dirty with household trash last July, making swimming impossible. Meanwhile at the 'Resort' beach during the same period the water was clean.

Over 10 days of vacation the sea was clean almost the entire time — microplastic appeared only once. One morning a yacht was anchored nearby and it felt like something bad had been dumped from it. Reportedly this year a lot of the debris is drifting in from the Antalya area.

At Sarysu beach this year there's an unusually large amount of small floating debris in the water, and not just near the shore — even about 20 meters past the buoys there's plenty of trash floating.

According to another chat, the sea became less clean due to a storm and the dismantling of a pier; someone also noted that bringing in sand for the beach was a bad idea.

At one beach the seabed has some large but not too frequent rocks. The sea is typically clear in the first half of the day and gets murkier by evening.

In Alanya, for almost a month the sea consistently had small plastic debris and trash, with the worst days bringing large pieces of plastic bags and paper to shore. Fully clear water was seen for the first time only after a month.

At Dubai Beach and across from Sea Life the water was clear (visible bottom all the way to the buoys) from morning until around 5pm, but by evening seaweed, sticks, small debris, and green foam would appear.

At Lara beach, travelers reported clean seawater even during strong waves, with no visible trash.

In the Babil Beach area, waves were bringing a lot of tiny plastic to the shore, making swimming uncomfortable.

Areas near the port are currently reported among the dirtiest: the beach behind the port was described as very dirty, and from the Megasaray area toward the port people reported an afternoon 'garbage slurry' and a dump-like smell.

Trash was reported not only near the shore: on a yacht trip around Porto Ceneviz, travelers saw the same floating debris as on the beach.

Tekirova Bay has noticeably deteriorated: oily slicks appear in the morning, and fine fragmented debris drifts in after midday. The pattern has repeated for two consecutive years (June 2025 and 2026).

Konyaaltı beach became heavily polluted shortly after the Boğaçay river was disturbed — the sea and shoreline turned very dirty within a day.

Beaches along the coast are cleaned regularly — bags of collected rubbish are visible along the shoreline in the morning. After cleaning, only small seaweed remains near the water's edge; the water is murky close to shore due to waves but clear further out.

Floating debris tends to be temporary — bottles and plastic wrappers appear and disappear quickly. Early morning around 8am is typically the best time to swim, when the water is cleanest.

Floating trash moves along the entire Antalya Bay coastline — it has been spotted in Kemer, Side, Alanya, Belek, and Beldibi. It's a regional issue, not limited to one beach.