DETERMINATION OF POTENTIAL ARTIFICIAL REEF AREAS BY MARINE GEOPHYSICS RESEARCH IN İZMIR BAY

Abstract

Artificial reefs are man-made underwater structures built to stimulate marine life and improve fisheries in areas with low biodiversity. However, with the use of artificial reefs by the Japanese after the second world war, their use has emerged to prevent erosion, tourism, contribute to the re-increase of natural coral reefs and even treat some diseases. In the last 30 years, artificial reef applications have been carried out in suitable areas in Turkey in order to increase the tourism potential, to restore the degraded ecosystems and to prevent uncontrolled fisheries. In İzmir, the work on creating artificial reefs, which was first started by the Ege University Faculty of Fisheries (EGE-SÜF) in 1989, with the sinking of 10 trolleybuses into the Gulf, continued in the following years with the cooperation of Ege University, local municipalities and fishermen's cooperatives. In 2017, with the geological and geophysical studies carried out with the Dokuz Eylül-3 research ship in three pilot sea areas (Maltepe, Urla and Gülbahçe Bay) in İzmir Bay, suitable artificial reef areas that will not cause the slightest negative ecological impact in the future were tried to be determined. As a result, areas where artificial reefs can be placed have been determined and the importance of reefs has been pointed out in order to increase the living and non-living activity of İzmir Bay together with sea tourism.