Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç Soyer, scuba diving from Güzelbahçe Public Beach to follow the cleaning process in İzmir Bay and to observe the underwater life. Stating that he had the opportunity to see many living things such as anemones, bream and flocks of coral, and stony coral in particular, the tube worm living in clean seas, Chairman Soyer said, “There is no trace of mucilage; on the contrary, we have a gulf that is getting cleaner and more colorful every day. I am proud of this. We maintain our goal of swimming in the Gulf and we are getting closer to that goal every day.”
The cleaning process in the Izmir Bay, which gained momentum with the investments of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, is also reflected in the underwater images. İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, who examined the underwater life by scuba diving from Güzelbahçe Second Port Public Beach to observe the situation in İzmir Bay against the risk of mucilage covering the seas Tunç Soyer gave the good news.
Soyer, who made investigations under the water with the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Youth and Sports Club Underwater Imaging Team Captain Murat Kaptan and his team, said, “It was a matter of curiosity whether there was mucilage in the Izmir Bay. We can see in the photos we took from underwater during this dive today that the life in the Gulf continues to diversify. No trace of mucilage; on the contrary, we have a Gulf that is getting clearer and more colorful with each passing day. I am proud of this. At the bottom of the sea, we saw anemones, swarms of bream and harlequins, stony corals, sponges, clownfish, tubeworms. Scuba pipe worms are one of the species that used to be in the Gulf but left the Bay due to pollution. Now they are returning. We were delighted to see that the number of this species living in clean, aquarium-like seas has increased considerably. I am very pleased. They will multiply as the gulf clears. We will see much brighter days. We maintain our goal of swimming in the Gulf and we are getting closer to that goal every day.”
Close follow-up to the Gulf
Providing information about the works that accelerate the cleaning process in the Gulf, Soyer said, “We continue oceanographic monitoring studies with TÜBİTAK. We conduct biological, physical, chemical and microbiological research in the Gulf with the Marmara TUBITAK ship every three months. Continuous data comes from our stations located in 36 points in the Gulf and 9 points in Yeni Foça and Seferihisar offshore. In addition, the underwater imaging team makes physical observations at certain points and analyzes by making necessary determinations. On the one hand, we protect our Bay with the Grand Canal Project and on the other hand with our new biological wastewater treatment plants. The production of our rainwater sewage separation channels continues intensively. Last week, we signed a $30 million loan agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC); We are accelerating our rain water-sewage water separation channel productions.”
Blue Bayraklı the number of beaches is increasing
Reminding that Izmir is the city with the highest number of Blue Flag awards in Turkey with 10 new beaches, 14 of which are public beaches, added this year, Mayor Soyer said: bayraklı We increased the number of public beaches by 78 percent in two years. This year blue, including special facilities bayraklı Our number of beaches has increased to 66. The spot where we dive today in Güzelbahçe, the first blue on the Gulf coast. bayraklı our beach. We want to gradually bring the blue flag into the interior of the Gulf and increase its number,” he said. Soyer said that they will open an exhibition of underwater images of the Izmir Bay during the Cabotage Festival and that images from today's diving will also be included in this exhibition.
If the sea is clean, life will live
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Youth and Sports Club Underwater Imaging Team Captain Murat Kaptan said, “We dived with our President at one of the Gulf Viewing Points. Anemones, cockerels, tubeworms, sargos, breams, all of these were seen by our president. As long as there is oxygen in the water. When there is oxygen in the water, the light transmittance increases and life comes alive. Today, together with our president, we have seen an incredible increase in the population of the tube worm, which has not been seen in the Gulf for many years, but lives only in clean seas. This is a very good sign. Because if there is oxygen, light permeability and the sea is clean, that creature can live. This sea, this beach deserves the blue flag, as this is its habitat.
Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç SoyerHakan Orhunbilge, Head of Youth and Sports Department of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, and Ersan Odaman, President of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Youth and Sports Club, accompanied the dive.
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