Sea snot disappearing in Gulf of Saros

ÇANAKKALE

Sea snot that has become an environmental concern threatening the ecosystem of Turkish waters and started to spread from the Marmara Sea to the Aegean Sea has begun to disappear in the Gulf of Saros, a team of professional divers said on June 23.

“When mucilage from the Marmara Sea started spreading to the Aegean Sea, it vividly covered the seabed a while ago,” Olgun Güngör, a professional diver, told daily Milliyet.

“We dived recently and saw a very thin layer of mucilage covering corals. Most of the mucilage disappeared due to the water currents,” he added.

It is a little early to “declare victory against the mucilage,” divers noted, adding, but “as fish will return to the gulf, the ecosystem of Saros will return to its old days.”

Murat Orkun, an underwater monitoring expert, stated, “If officials continue to implement the measures taken against mucilage, then the Gulf of Saros would survive the calamity with very low damage.”

Serdar Savaşal, another diver, said that the coastline between İbrice and Enez was cleared of mucilage. “Fishing lines were full of mucilage two months ago. Now it is clean. Fishermen are back to fishing again. This is good news,” he added.