Impact of mucilage in Marmara Sea to be less harsh: Expert

ISTANBUL

The presence of marine mucilage has been detected in the depths of the Marmara Sea, but the impact will not be as severe as last year, an expert has said.

“There is mucilage; it is not a surprise. But, we expect that it will not have the same impact as last year,” Melek İşinibilir Okyar, the head of Istanbul University’s Aquaculture Faculty, told Demirören News Agency on March 4.

The country’s Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry announced a 22-point action plan on June 6, 2021, to eliminate the mucilage problem that is affecting the marine ecosystem. Two days after, Turkey launched a massive cleanup campaign in seven provinces along the coast of the Marmara Sea.

“Indeed, the mucilage problem in the Marmara Sea was never totally over. It disappeared, but reasons causing the mucilage are persisting,” Okyar said.

Stating that obeying the ministry’s action plan is extremely important, the expert said: “The formation of mucilage did not emerge in a year. So, it will not end in a year.”

She reminded that “we will see the mucilage from time to time,” as the Marmara Sea is “sick.”

The good part of last year’s calamity was that people residing along the sea have become aware of marine pollution, according to Okyar.
Mucilage is a jelly-like layer of slime that developed on the surface of the Marmara Sea at summer of 2021 due to the excessive proliferation of microscopic plants called phytoplankton caused by untreated waste dumped in the partly-landlocked sea.