A scientific research vessel set sail on Monday as researchers seek answers to the root of pollution in the Marmara Sea, Turkey’s only landlocked sea which faced sea snot or mucilage last year.
“ODTÜ Science” vessel of the Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) will tour the sea for two weeks, checking 110 observation stations and taking samples from the bottom of the sea, for analysis of pollution’s history. Next-generation microsensors and new experiments will be employed for the first time to determine the burden of mucilage on the sea. Scientists will be able to measure the concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus that cause the mucilage in deeper areas of Marmara and how much they would affect the ecosystem further.
The expedition is part of a modeling system for Marmara called MARMOD, launched in 2017 for a comprehensive analysis of the current and future state of the sea.
Associate Professor Mustafa Yücel, deputy director of METU Institute of Marine Sciences, spoke to Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday about their previous expeditions and the current one. He said their most recent analysis disclosed that mucilage that threatened Marmara last year did not emerge this May, so far. “Organic waste occasionally concentrates on the surface and with the currents, it can spread. We took samples from certain locations but they did not turn out to be a part of mucilage,” he said. However, he pointed out that their expedition between March and early April showed the sea still had a significant load of nitrogen and phosphorus. “Their rate appears stable but the situation did not improve. We are talking about a load three times more than the load in the (larger) Black Sea. But the results also show us that this can change on a year-over-year basis and a comprehensive change (for good) can take years.”
He stated that the current expedition will help them to find an answer to the question of why mucilage did not emerge again despite the presence of causes contributing to its formation.
But the focus will be on the history of Marmara and the impact of mucilage on the deepest points of the sea. Yücel and his crew will pick up sedimentary samples from the sea, to determine the “exact date” when nitrogen and phosphorus load emerged. “We believe there are deposits of nitrogen and phosphorus here in Marmara and we will check samples to test this theory,” he said. The findings will help scientists determine the chemical, biological and physical cycles of the sea, which is surrounded by Turkey’s most crowded city Istanbul as well as major industrial hubs.
