Record-holding divers call for urgent action in Marmara Sea
ISTANBUL
Türkiye’s renowned record-holding divers have issued an urgent call to both authorities and the public, urging immediate preventive measures and enhanced awareness regarding the escalating pollution in the Marmara Sea, particularly the resurgence of the mucilage crisis.
In a bid to spotlight the increasingly frequent occurrence of mucilage, also known as sea snot, in recent years, Şahika Ercümen — a distinguished free diver and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Türkiye’s “Advocate for Life Below Water” initiative — descended into the depths of the Marmara Sea on a single breath.
Accompanying Ercümen on these awareness dives were Professor Mustafa Sarı, a marine scientist at Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University who has conducted extensive research on mucilage and Osman Benli, an instructor from the Erdek Diving Club.
During the dives, mucilage formations were observed reaching depths of up to three meters — an alarming indicator of its growing vertical spread.
Ercümen, who dove in Southern Marmara — one of the regions most severely afflicted — stated that it was her first time encountering mucilage in such proximity and density.
“Mucilage has proliferated to levels that pose an existential threat to underwater life. What is visible at the surface is merely a façade — the true extent lies beneath,” she said after the dive.
“In recent years, I’ve often encountered pollution and similar phenomena during my dives, but what I witnessed this time far exceeded anything I’d seen before. The underwater environment is suffocating, it is as though the sea is gasping for breath.”
Another world record-holder, ultra-marathon swimmer Bengisu Avcı — the first and only Turkish woman to have traversed the Cook and Gibraltar Straits, the English Channel and the Catalina and Molokai Channels — also found herself training in mucilage-filled waters just two weeks ago in the Yeni Kordon beach of Çanakkale, where the Marmara Sea yields to the Aegean.
“The impact on marine and benthic life is palpable. The underwater landscape appears lifeless, leached of color and vibrancy. The surface, meanwhile, is marred by a yellow, frothy film, reminiscent of a boat’s used filter,” she described.
“Even the water’s taste has changed, sharper, more astringent,” Avcı said.
“Because it remains mostly offshore and invisible from land, the public either remains oblivious or indulges in denial, assuming it is a remote issue. It is not. The threat is quite literally at our doorstep. If immediate and decisive measures are not enacted, our seas will perish.”
The mucilage threat in the Marmara Sea, which reached a crescendo in 2021, appears once again to be intensifying as summer approaches. Scientists now fear that the region may be on the cusp of a recurrence of that environmental catastrophe.
Professor Sarı warned that more than 25 million people live across the seven provinces surrounding the Marmara Sea, noting that wastewater from one out of every two residents reaches the sea without any treatment.
