Cigarette butts, shopping carts, heart medication, wallets and more. Rare pieces are on display at Setur Marinas Ayvalık's marine debris exhibition, which is quietly repeated every year.

If you happen to be in Setur Marinas Ayvalık these days, you may encounter interesting objects covered with plankton here and there and on the pontoons. Objects thrown into the sea from boats throughout the year are removed during this period when the waters become clearer and presented to the attention of sea enthusiasts (!). It is almost as if you have encountered a modern installation, and you are invited to decipher the message of the exhibition.

We visit this interesting exhibition accompanied by professional diver Melih Derneli, who organizes a series of dives for this event every year.

We found the most interesting piece of the exhibition to be a container of heart medication. Just thinking about how this medication ended up in the sea and what its owner went through makes one's heart sink.

Another interesting piece is a men's wallet. It is a pretty big wallet too. Although the dollar bills inside look a bit faded, the identity card is still legible. Honestly, we cannot help but admire the patience of the owner of the wallet to wait for this exhibition instead of calling a diver to recover his wallet.

Shopping carts are among the most frequently encountered objects in the exhibition. This year 15 pieces (metal and plastic, two different designs) are on display. Groceries from the nearby market are carried to the pontoons in these carts. However, since the carts are not yet capable of returning to the market on their own, they end up in the water.

The barbecue we encountered on one of the pontoons is completely rusted. Unfortunately, it is no longer usable. But the beverage can inside is still shiny. Well, at least the person who threw the beverage can into the sea seems to have hit the target.

We encountered many boat parts, pipe and cable scraps in the exhibition. There are so many parts in this group that you can get the entire technical equipment of a boat for free by adding a brand new, never-used battery that came out of the water.

Unopened bottles of whisky and wine, and full sets of glasses to accompany them, are the most expensive pieces in the recent exhibition. Unfortunately, there is nothing worth celebrating!

Another object is cigarette butts. Especially cigarette butts found under and around the same boat provide very clear information about the brand preference of the boat owner.

It is possible to find out who the garbage belongs to by looking at the location where they are found and sorting them according to themes. However, the boat owners do not seem to be happy (for some reason!) with the return of their lost items. Consequently, Mr. Melih's unique collection of mugs is expanding year by year.

It is hard to believe that all these items fell into the sea in the marina by accident, due to the wind or unintentionally. However, it is clear that boat owners are cutting corners and ignoring their garbage to avoid paying for divers. Yet even simply informing the marina management could have been a meaningful step for the environment.

Nevertheless, we cannot help but admire the elegant way in which the marina management came up with sending the necessary messages to the owners of the garbage. We look forward to seeing the pieces that will be on display next year.