Marine life in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara is under serious threat, Today’s Zaman reports.

“In the near future, the Black Sea might be transferred from the ‘too dirty’ category to the ‘dead sea’ category if the necessary steps are not taken,” said Tezcan Yaramancı, president of the Turkish Marine Environment Protection Association (Turmepa).

Describing the plight of the Black Sea, Yaramancı said, “The amount of oxygen there has considerably decreased, and seabed fauna is seriously damaged.”

The number of fish species in the Black Sea has decreased by half, from 52 down to 26 in the last 50 years, Rahmi Koç, founding and honorary chairman of Turmepa, announced, referring to research carried out in 2008, at the First International Marmara and Black Sea Conference held in Istanbul on April 30.

The data are even worse for the Sea of Marmara, an inland sea that can’t be dealt with separately from the Black Sea as it feeds on the currents coming from its neighbor in the north. In the Sea of Marmara, which has been heavily polluted for years by the domestic and industrial waste of the towns surrounding it, the number of fish species has plummeted to four or five, down from 127 in the 1970s.

Nearly 90 percent of the pollution in the seas is caused by domestic and industrial waste. Rivers such as the Danube, Dnieper and Dniester are the main polluters of the Black Sea, with the Danube in the lead, most experts agree.