Istanbul in the 1970s, as people from Anatolia migrated to the city to find employment in the many new factories that were built on the outskirts of the sprawling metropolis. This sudden, sharp rise in the city's population caused a large demand for housing, and many previously outlying villages and forests became engulfed into the metropolitan area of Istanbul. Istanbul is located in north-western Turkey within the Marmara Region on a total area of . The Bosphorus, which connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, divides the city into a European, Thracian side—comprising the historic and economic centers—and an
Marine life of the Strait of Messina important in the Mediterranean Sea in terms of whale species diversity. Worthy of note, besides the several species of Dolphins are the Fin Whale ("Balaenoptera physalus") and particularly the Sperm Whales which migrate to the Strait to their breeding area, probably the Aeolian Islands. Sharks migrate through the Strait of Messina, including the Great White Shark ("Carcharodon carcharias") and the Bluntnose Sixgill Shark ("Hexanchus griseus"). The abundant presence of marine fauna in the Straits, though noted by much earlier zoologists was first effectively publicised by the Italian scientist Anastasio Cocco (1799–1854) and following this in the second half of the