Sinop port cleaning with scuba

We were in Sinop harbor for our third week of our European Solidarity Corps, Volunteering Teams in High Priority Areas project “Sustainable Environment for the Aquatic Life – SEAL” funded by the European Commission. Accompanied by Sinop University Underwater Technology Department Academicians Ömer Salih Aslan, Bora Eyüpoğlu, Recep Öztürk and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zafer Karslı, we cleaned the seabed in the harbor with scuba diving together with Sinop University Underwater Technology Department students and the volunteers with diving badges from Spain, Jordan and Portugal. We removed carpets, chairs, garbage cans, beverage cans, car tires and many other household and plastic waste from the sea. Sinop Mayor Metin Gürbüz also came to our cleaning works and helped us carry our waste. Our Mayor supported us by saying, “It is easier to collect garbage and waste on land, even the waste above the sea is easy, but collecting the waste underwater is really difficult. Our friends have been trying for hours. Also, collecting and removing them from under the sea is equally risky.”

#esc, #blacksea, #Türkiye, #EU, #Sinop, #scuba, #environment