The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Marine Services Directorate is to use drones to monitor marine pollution in the Bosphorus Strait, northwestern Turkey, to gain greater control over surveillance and fine enforcement.
The drones will enable higher monitoring and pollution detection and will complement the existing 24 hour enforcement methods that includes patrol vessels, helicopter services and ship inspections. Pollution will be identified and photographed so that samples can be taken to determine if the ship is causing pollution above standards levels, with the ship then facing penalisation depending on its size.
The implementation of the heightened surveillance comes following the allocation of 2.8 million lira in fines (approximately one million US dollars) to 90 ships for marine pollution violations in the Bosphorus Strait.
Staff are currently being trained in the use and management of the drones and the Directorate hopes to begin operations in March this year.
