The first part of the research called ‘2024 Marmara Sea Expeditions’, in which 8 scientists participated with the ship “Bilim 2” of the Middle East Technical University (METU) Marine Sciences Institute, was completed last week. The results revealed that the destruction in Marmara has almost reached an irreversible point. Evaluating the research results for Haber Global Web Özel, Prof. Dr. Doğan Yaşar, a member of the Environment, Biodiversity and Climate Change Working Group of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), said that the critical threshold in the Marmara Sea was exceeded in 1989.
THE LAST BREATH WAS TAKEN AWAY
It was stated that many parameters such as warming, pollution, oxygen values, current directions were examined during the four-day examination of the scientific team in the Marmara Sea. According to the statements made, the situation is very bad, especially in the oxygen level in the sea. While it is stated that there is almost no oxygen left after a depth of 30 meters in the Marmara Sea, the committee defines this situation as ‘coma’. The delegation stated that after 30 meters, a condition called ‘hypoxia’ occurs in which no fish can survive, and that in the recent past, Mediterranean currents fed the sea to some extent, but this situation has also disappeared in recent studies.
IT BECAME A SEPTIC
Assessing the situation in the seas, Prof. Dr. Doğan Yaşar stated that the Marmara Sea actually reached saturation in terms of pollution in 1989 and said: “It reached the critical level in the late 80s. In 1992, the first mucilage explosion occurred in the Marmara Sea. However, we continued to use the Marmara Sea as a septic tank afterwards. Because the majority of Turkey’s population lives in the Marmara Region, the waste from this population has been discharged into the Marmara Sea for years without any treatment.“
SEA WATER HEATED
Prof. Dr. Yaşar stated that industrial waste, apart from domestic waste, dealt a fatal blow to the sea and continued as follows: “Industrial facilities draw cooling water from the sea and heat this water by approximately 1 degree and release it back into the sea. I said it back then and I always say it; attention should be paid to these water exchanges. Water should be taken from the depths and returned to the depths. Otherwise, the surface water in Marmara is warming up. This was the last warning from the Sea of Marmara. We have recently encountered very intense mucilage. It was said that this was sudden, but it was definitely not sudden. The Sea of Marmara had been informing us of the situation for 35 years.“
CARRYING POISON TO ADOLESCENTS
Prof. Dr. Yaşar, who also drew attention to the Ergene River, said, “The river was feeding an agricultural basin, but more than two thousand industrial facilities were opened here. They drew the groundwater, and all this water was discharged into the Ergene River. The flow of the river increased from 2.5 cubic meters to 14 cubic meters. They drew groundwater, polluted it and released it into the river. “They built a treatment plant on Ergene but they also released the water coming out of there into the Marmara. The Marmara was already polluted; this is what would happen if everything was dumped into the Marmara,” he said.
THE DANGER WILL NOT PASS
Prof. Dr. Yaşar made pessimistic statements about the solution and said: “The danger will not pass, it will continue for many years. Plans were made after 2021, biological treatment facilities were targeted, but no steps can be taken. This has nothing to do with climate. It comes entirely from our use of the Marmara Sea as a septic tank. “Warnings were always made; ‘Purify all your water and do not just dump it into the sea, use it for agricultural irrigation’, they said, but unfortunately these did not come to fruition.”
THE SEA WILL SMELL LIKE SEWER
Prof. Dr. Mustafa Yücel, who was part of the delegation, also pointed out the approaching danger in his statement after the four-day investigation. “As soon as hydrogen sulphide waters start to accumulate at the bottom, they will gradually worsen and rise to the top if precautions are not taken. This means odor, hydrogen sulphide waters washing up on the shore, and mucilage formation. We see that the nitrate in Eastern Marmara will be depleted in the next 4 or 5 years.” he said.
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