Touching Marine Life – A Discussion

To touch or not to touch!

We’re now in a time where people are the least connected to nature, have the least access to natural spaces and are addicted to the internet, influenced by what the social media algorithm shows them. The world population is increasing at an alarming rate, nature is the most degraded and environmental policy is shaped by politics. The sliding baseline of what is deemed to be good environmental status is slipping all the time. The debate on the environment is at its most polarised it’s ever been, the two ends of the camp at loggerheads with very little resolution for practical and meaningful change. As a marine biologist 0f 22 years, a lot has happened in that time.

What does this have to do with touching marine life? Well….it’s all connected, stick with us and read below. We had a few comments on a social media post recently about holding starfish and we wanted to add some context around this issue. Fair play to the commenters for raising a conservation issue, it’s good to be challenged on these topics but there is a wider context to consider.

I have seen the worst of bad behaviour and poor practice; people standing all over coral reefs, holding onto sharks, very bad watermanship and worst still, companies promoting this with no code of practice and just chucking a production line of snorkelers and divers into the water. That’s not what we’re about at all…. 

This is a much different issue to the likes of scuba divers sitting on coral reefs, showing poor buoyancy skills. A personally witnessed example is below, observed in the tropics. A guide setting up a picture with a turtle, the tourists thought it was great but stood all over the coral, broke a few pieces and the turtle disappeared quickly. This was a systemic problem that has a multitude of issues starting with the culture of the dreaded Instagram. The rise of the ‘one for the gram’ now pushed what would have been lines in the sand, to keep feeding the social media machine for the kudos. The guides allowing and encouraging this practice to gain positive reviews for their company & tips. The reef was heavily bleached and in a terrible state in this location. The mass tourism and poor ethics on show was a not helpful and great example of the problem.

On the flip-side the couple were stoked on the picture with the turtle, ignorant as they were to their behaviour and it’s effect. What benefit is there to such an interaction? Is there any meaningful change in their post holiday behaviour? The coral bleaching is a worldwide climatic problem, not helped by the local tourism fuelled commercial expansion. However I was part of the problem being there to begin with. What could be done better here, a code of practice with the companies running tours and some professional standards with the guides. Some training and additional kit to allow better snorkelling practice would have been good too. But in a world of instant gratification is this really achievable. The big picture stuff of the bleached coral….that’s for another conversation. This is a slide from a presentation I give to masters student on ethics & code of practice in wildlife tourism.

So back home to our situation – firstly we don’t advocate touching large marine life, although there are only a few things here that it would apply to such as seals & sharks. You would be lucky if a seal would come close enough to be able to touch. Occasionally, a very inquisitive seal may nibble a snorkelers fins. However, as much as they can look cute, the cheeky sea pups have big teeth and are wild so it’s best to just float quietly and enjoy the encounter. Sharks can come close to us and we have in our code of practice not to touch them for good reasons (i.e. not appropriate, shark may spook, sharks also have rough dermal denticles & protective skin slime). 

This is more a topic for around small invertebrate life that we see whilst snorkeling. Starfish, urchins, crabs and brings us back to the first point! We’re getting there….!

We have a lot of first time snorkelers come on our tours, people that don’t have easy access to the coast, or an upbringing by the sea, nor a childhood spent rock pooling and discovering the natural world. People come to us that have never been on a boat, never been in the ocean, or have even seen a crab. Most people also do not have the skills to allow them to free dive down to see such creatures in situ, unless their visit times in with a very low tide and things are much closer to the surface, but that only happens every so often as the tide time changes constantly each day. In these circumstances our guides will duck dive (i.e. shallow free dive) to select and find small invertebrate life to show people. Things such as a starfish, crabs, scallops, urchins that we interpret and explain things around biology, anatomy and conservation.

We are all marine biologist with a passion for marine life and handle the creature with care. Like rock pooling, replacing the animals back to the same place, keeping them mostly under water for people to see for a short encounter. We are aware of welfare issues like taking care of the tube feet & starfish being able to ‘breathe’ through the gills on their skin. There is a short displacement of the animal, however, in our opinion, the benefit outweighs any temporary movement. We are human, and we react differently to touching things, experiencing things, rather than typing things on a keyboard or watching a video.

Showing the diversity and colourful life allows us to interpret the marine life these people would not otherwise get to see, allowing a deeper understanding and interest to the marine world. Think about it in relation to the take away concepts people have such as;

• ‘I didn’t realise it would be so colourful, I thought our seas were a bit grey and lifeless’
• ‘The Kelp Forest is so diverse and hides so many things I didn’t know about’
• ‘ I learned so many facts from the guides’

People return from our tours having had an immersive experience, empowered into changing their opinion of our coastline and now have a connection to it. Having seen it and experienced it with their own eyes, they now have an interest. This is where the big picture part comes in….

It’s similar to the Blue Planet effect; there is no point in preaching to marine biologists, wildlife lovers, advocates, conservationists about the big pictures stuff. We are the minority that already know the problems, and we are the ones to shout about it to everyone else. The everyone else makes up the vast majority of the population and is where the biggest impact of change occurs. Which takes me to the Blue Planet effect. It made the wider population interested, it was designed for mass market and gave the general public some scientifically backed information on the threats facing our planet & oceans. But it also made them care, and it showed them ‘hey, look at this super cool stuff we have in the ocean’. This is what is worth protecting and some things you can do about it.

So…….

In a small way, the people to come to us that haven’t snorkelled before, perhaps live in big cities, and are stuck in phone life. They now have a small connection to the ocean, they have been enthused by seeing that colourful starfish. So when the public consultation comes out about some industrialisation of the environment (e.g. mass kelp forest harvesting). They now think back, ‘hey remember all the cool stuff we saw? It’s actually important!’ Maybe they make a better choice in their supermarket shopping, maybe they make a lifestyle change to reduce their impact. Maybe they tell their friends at the dinner at the weekend and the ripple effect happens. See where I’m going with this? So we are fighting the good fight. People come to us for an experience but we also want to impart some knowledge and give them some good take aways. We can’t change the world but we can do our best to try and shout about the oceans as best we can. 

Not everyone had an upbringing playing in rock pools and investigating the coastline. However, it’s these things which make humans care and that is the biggest change we can make.  So the wee decorator crabs, sunstars and urchins are doing a power of good to enthuse people. They might have a short holiday from their rocky outcrop but they are the ones showing off the underwater world. Anyone heard of Aristotle’s Lantern? Go google it, better still, come and see it for yourself. 

What do you think!? Give us a shout in the comments. Shane Wasik – Founder BSS

If you want to read more, have a look at our code of practice here.