Context: Recently, an orange-brown chemical sheet spread over 15 acres (6 hectares) of a nationally recognized marine life area in the French Mediterranean following a leak at a petrochemical plant in southern France.
Key Points

• The area of the Mediterranean where the chemical ended up is listed on a French inventory as an ecosystem of outstanding natural fauna and flora for its coral and sea life.
• The French Maritime Prefecture banned leisure boat cruising, swimming, fishing, and diving in about four miles of the along the coast surrounding the contaminated area.

About Mediterranean Sea

• The Mediterranean Sea is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land.

The Mediterranean Sea connects:

• to the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar in the west.
• to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, by the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus respectively, in the east.
• to the southeast it is connected with the Red Sea by the Suez Canal.

Bordering Countries: Albania, Algeria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovnia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Monaco, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey.