Scientific Cooperation for İZSU and TÜBİTAK for the Swimable Izmir Bay

İZSU General Directorate, which continues its activities in line with the goal of making Izmir Bay floatable again, is observing the improvement in water in the light of scientific data within the scope of the Oceanographic Monitoring Project it carried out with TÜBİTAK.

In Turkey, observation, and the first system of monitoring of water quality modeling Izmir Bay Oceanographic Monitoring Project, Turkey Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) carrying out in collaboration with Izmir Metropolitan Municipality of Izmir Water and Sewerage General Directorate, continues to work in the Gulf. The project involves a team of 20 specialists. Scientists sailing to the Gulf with the TÜBİTAK Marmara vessel 4 times a year, once every season, measure the physical, chemical, biological and microbiological quality of the water. Thanks to this method, changes in water and ecological developments can be controlled. Within the scope of the two-year project, observations are made at 36 stations from İzmir Bay and 9 stations from Yeni Foça and Seferihisar Akarca bays. The project, which cost 2 million 750 thousand liras, also provides the opportunity to watch the life under the sea. Under the project, underwater imaging is done from 9 different points and the effects of treatment facilities on their regions are also observed.

Destination Floatable Gulf

Çağdaş Eşnaz, the Fisheries Engineer at the İZSU Central Region Wastewater Treatment Plants Branch Directorate, stated that they realized the second sampling of 2020 and said, “We see that the Izmir Bay is getting better day by day. The level of dissolved oxygen, which fell to zero at the bottom of the Gulf before 2000 and did not give fish a chance to live, rose rapidly. Oxygen content was observed in the Inner Bay to allow living animals with high metabolism, such as fish, to live on the seabed. This rate increased to the level of 4 milligrams / liter. In addition, the increasing clarity and light transmittance were among the most important indicators of the improvement in the water quality of the Gulf ”.

Reminding that the diversity of species in the Gulf is constantly increasing, Eşnaz said, “Our goal is to make these measurements in all our bays. To achieve the goal of a swimable Gulf by detecting the failing points ”.