Cesme Marina: The Squid Project

Cesme Marina, a Camper & Nicholsons marina in Turkey, has been doing its part to encourage aquatic life in the marina. Their focus is to promote squid population growth in the sea. They kicked off the year by starting “The Squid Project” as part of its environmental protection initiative.

The marina wanted to do something about the pollution and improper hunting methods in the waters. The Izmir Metropolitan Municipality launched the program this year, with a focus on continuing the generation of squid in and around Cesme and Izmir. The project’s goal is to deliver a further 1.5 million squid. To make this happen, staff at Cesme Marina prepared two squid nests in December, and a diver placed them in the marina in January. Three months after being launched, the project is growing — in April, they worked with Derin Doğa Diving Centre, a local dive company, to install two more nests in popular diving points in Cesme. At the time of press, they were still monitoring the results — they are expecting some growth on the marina nests in the spring.

This isn’t the only eco initiative they’ve got under way. For their Olive Oil Project, aside from providing guests with various delicious organic olive oils, they’re helping to sustain the olive trees around Cesme Marina. The project is award-winning — it has gained international recognition at the House of Commons in London, as well as the Green Awards in Ankara, Turkey. The marina reports that they are looking forward to their harvest festival in September.

Cesme Marina also understands the importance of monitoring the water’s cleanliness, which is why they started The Mussel Project. To do so, they planted several mussel beds within the marina and have been monitoring them to ensure that the mussels keep naturally cleansing the water, thereby creating a natural, eco-friendly initiative for the marina. “We have proved that mussels do filter and clean the sea water,” reports Can Akaltan, general manager for Cesme Marina. “However, our mussels have been eaten by the breams slowly.” Due to the breams — a type of local fish that love eating mussels — they are considering an alternative way to use mussels.

Not only do these many eco-friendly efforts help protect the ocean from pollution, but for whatever projects that Izmir Metropolitan Municipality creates, Akaltan says all of Turkey profits from it on an ecological level. www.cesmemarina.com.tr