Mussels to be used against marine mucilage invasion

ANKARA

Mussels will be used in line with a massive cleanup campaign launched by authorities to eliminate the problem of mucilage that has severely threatened the marine biome of the Marmara Sea, a senior official has said.

Speaking at the all-party committee set up in the Turkish parliament that investigates the cause of the mucilage outbreak and measures to combat it, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said that the seawater would be cleaned by mussels left into the sea by authorities.

“The Marmara Sea will reach an annual mussel production capacity of 45,000 tons. In this context, we are establishing a kind of biological water treatment system so that 22.5 billion liters of water per hour will be filtered and cleaned by mussels,” Pakdemirli noted.

Mucilage is a jelly-like layer of slime that developed on the surface of the Marmara Sea this summer due to the excessive proliferation of microscopic plants called phytoplankton caused by untreated waste dumped in the partly-landlocked sea.

Noting that a 22-point action plan to clear the recent surge in mucilage will be carried out by authorities, Pakdemirli said that there were five actions carried out under the responsibility of his ministry and six actions to be carried out in cooperation with other ministries.

He also said that the necessary studies have been completed for the determination of sensitive water bodies and for updating the regulation on improving water quality.

The minister noted that medium and large-scale livestock enterprises in the Marmara Sea Basin are obliged to build animal manure storage in order to prevent nitrate pollution caused by agricultural production.