'Aquarium of Saros' draws diving enthusiasts

EDİRNE

The Port of İbrice, called the “aquarium” of the Gulf of Saros in northwestern Turkey, welcomes local and foreign diving enthusiasts.

Diver candidates, accompanied by instructors, dive into artificial reefs where the Dardanelles battles were revived and the area where the Airbus A330 passenger plane was located.

Diving schools located in the port continue practical and theoretical training, while the relatives of di-vers can also vacation on the beaches in the Gulf of Saros.

Dives are performed in accordance with coronavirus measures. After diving, accessories such as glasses, flippers, snorkels, clothes are all disinfected.

Keşan Mayor Mustafa Helvacıoğlu told Anadolu Agency that the city is called the Port of İbrice, the “evil eye bead and aquarium” of Saros.

“After the Sunken reefs and the aircraft, the tank sinking work will also be accomplished. There are about 100,000 visits in İbrice region.

“If there is an economy brought about by diving tourism in Egypt, we are also working in our gulf with our Trakya Development Agency and Edirne Governor’s Office,” said Helvacıoğlu.

He said that the city will create a campground in İbrice for diving tourism, stressing: “We will add professionalism to İbrice. Diving is an expensive sport. We will offer better conditions to the fans who perform this sport.”

“Accommodation, camping and caravan tourism will be offered to divers. Apart from that, we will solve infrastructure problems. There’s potential, we need to process İbrice. We started to do the work of it,” he added.

Daily growing interest

Turkish Water Sports Federation Edirne Representative Özkan Arsu also said the Port of İbrice has become the center of attraction for underwater sports.

Arsu, who stated that İbrice is the cleanest area in terms of diving tourism around the northwestern province of Istanbul, said: “They reach here in three hours from Istanbul. After the weekend dip, they also take a family vacation. The popularity of this place is growing day by day.”

Arsu mentioned that 80,000 to 120,000 divers come to the region every year.

He stressed that the arrival of divers with their families also mobilizes tourism. “From the point of view of tourism, this number is about 1.5 million with their families and relatives. Interest in İbrice is growing day by day. Divers also contribute to the region in an economic sense.”

Diving instructor Ferhat Kurt expressed that there has been a 100 percent increase in the number of divers in the Port of İbrice in the last 10 years.

Kurt, who said that diving schools were previously located in the port, moved out of the port under the new regulation, noted that they continued activities without problems, although they moved to the sea and boats.

Instructor Ahmet Yumurtacı also said they give half an hour of theoretical training to candidates of the diver and then experience diving together underwater.

He noted that even those who do not know how to swim can dive accompanied by instructors.

Diving center owner Serdar Savaşal emphasized that his facility started diving on July 1 and received in-tensive diving reservations.

Mentioning that they take advantage of not having mucilage-related problems, Savaşal said those who want to dive can realize their underwater dream at an affordable price.