Istanbul: The recent outbreak of a thick, slimy sludge in Turkey’s Sea of Marmara, which connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, threatens to turn into a regional ecological disaster, according to Turkish biologists.
The greyish layer, known as marine mucilage or sea snot, blanketed the coasts of Istanbul and other major urban centres surrounding Marmara in early May.
The mucus-like substance, a bloom of microscopic algae, suffocates marine life.
It is “only a matter of time” before Marmara’s mucilage expands to the Black Sea and the Aegean, hydro-biologist Levent Artuz said.
Artuz’s team of nearly 20 experts has been monitoring 450 locations in the Sea of Marmara since the beginning of 2021, before the sticky substance spread across much of the sea’s surface.
The “man-made catastrophe” has been in the making for decades, exacerbated by unchecked discharge of industrial and residential waste into water, and “irreversibly” weakened Marmara’s ecosystem, according to Artuz.
Artuz warned that the mucilage cannot decompose due to lack of oxygen in Marmara.
“This is about to become an international problem, a biological corridor can carry the substance quickly,” he said, urging neighbouring countries to take precautions.
The mucilage has already drastically reduced fish diversity in Marmara in just over a year.
“The number of species in one station has fallen to 20 from 200 last year … overall, 60 per cent of the species are gone,” Artuz added.
That is the worst outcome since 1954 when biologists first started assessing Marmara, according to Artuz.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the marine crisis a “calamity”in June when he announced an action plan to help ease its impacts,including cleaning the layer on the surface.
Artuz thinks such measures are in vain as the substance has already permeated into Marmara’s deep waters.
The untreated waste and sewage discharge in deep waters should immediately stop, Artuz adds, citing recently added discharge channels from Istanbul’s neighbouring cities into Marmara.
“Marmara is now a dead sea after three decades of intense pollution.I hope the surrounding seas will not suffer the same fate.” — dpa
