ANKARA: Turkey has cleaned 1,197 cubic meters (42,271 cubic feet) of mucilage from the Marmara Sea, Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum said in a statement.
Kurum said that operations to clear the sea of the substance, known colloquially as “sea snot,” are ongoing at 77 locations, adding that the collected mucilage had been sent for disposal.
Turkish authorities this week announced a 22-point action plan to clear a surge of mucilage covering parts of the Marmara Sea in the country’s northwest.
Kurum, who launched the cleanup campaign on Istanbul’s Caddebostan coast, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that it was the biggest maritime cleanup campaign in Turkey. “Our work will eliminate the visual pollution and the smell in the Marmara and help sunlight reach the bottom (for growth in the underwater ecosystem). Our work will be helpful to keep it clean, and I want to assure the public that we will make the Marmara clean again, with a spirit of mobilization,” he said.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Parliament has also agreed to set up an all-party committee to investigate the slimy, floating mass of yellowish-white sea mucilage. The mucilage has also infiltrated portions of the adjoining Aegean and Black Sea.
In a rare show of unity, the five parties represented in Parliament agreed to a joint committee that would investigate the cause of the outbreak and propose measures to combat it.
The 19-member committee is to complete the probe within three months.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has vowed to rescue the Marmara, has blamed the outbreak on untreated waste dumped into the sea and on climate change.
Meanwhile, the country has also set up a “Marmara Sea Action Plan Coordination Committee,” Communications Director Fahrettin Altun announced in a tweet showing a circular by Erdoğan. – Agencies
