Bosphorus akin to a trash can, says Turkish NGO

Hurriyet -

250 divings since 2005 by the divers of the Underwater Cleaning Movement, or STH, show how filthy the underwater of Bosphorus. The articles of trash STH has found in the strait reflects the various socio-cultural differences of the Istanbul neighborhoods near where they were discovered. A vendor’s cart sits immobile on the seabed off the coast of Eminönü, good luck charms glitter on the seabed at Üsküdar and Stanley knives stab the coast of Kadıköy.

The Bosphorus Strait, so beautiful from above, could be equally impressive below, but members of a nongovernmental organization who have dived into the straight 250 times since 2005 say it is filthy.

“Everywhere there are people, there is pollution; only the density of the population varies. Boats are the number one source of sea pollution. Every single piece of trash you throw into the sea is ruining the habitats of marine species. For example, a tire takes 450 years to dissolve. As they dissolve, tires poison the environment,” said Hakan Tiryaki, chief of the Underwater Cleaning Movement, or STH.

STH is a nongovernmental organization dedicated to raising peoples’ awareness of sea pollution. “By diving at crowded places, we wanted to highlight the concept of sea pollution,” Tiryaki said.

Unfortunately, regardless of the beauty of the view of the Bosphorus from above, the situation below is a totally different story. A brief catalog of some of the articles of trash STH has found in the strait reflects the various socio-cultural differences of the Istanbul neighborhoods near where they were discovered.

A vendor’s cart sits immobile on the seabed off the coast of Eminönü, good luck charms glitter on the seabed at Üsküdar and Stanley knives stab the coast of Kadıköy.

All right, but is all the trash in the Bosphorus discarded unconsciously? “A truck battery can only be carried by two or three people. Something that heavy cannot fall into the sea accidentally. A 12-square-meter piece of flooring cannot accidentally fall into the sea. There are plenty of plastic bags and other kinds of waste you would expect to find down there.

This is normal. But dropping a panel radiator into the water accidentally is not possible,” Tiryaki said.

Most areas of the Bosphorus where the STH collects its data are suitable for diving, and the group only dives on certain days in order to maintain an accurate catalog of what they discover on the seabed. Accordingly, the group is able to compare the differences, for example, across two days of findings.

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