As if we don’t have enough motivation to conserve and protect our seas, here is yet another reason. Scientists say that tourism and the construction of numerous chemical plants have caused a water shortage in the Dead Sea. It has shrunk a third of its size in just a half a century and it is estimated that the body of water will lose another third by the year 2100. This massive water shortage is creating dangerous sinkholes along the coastline where the water used to sit. “The holes form when a subterranean salt layer that once bordered the sea is dissolved by underground fresh water that follows the receding Dead Sea waters,” explains this article. These sinkholes are so dangerous that they have trapped and killed several unsuspecting tourists. While officials have tried to rope off these areas, it is impossible to get them all. And with no clear plan to fix this problem, it looks like the Dead Sea will keep dwindling and the sinkholes will keep growing. Sadly, these types of things are preventable and yet they are still happening all over the world.