Tuesday ramblings

Baby beach sceneryWe had two nice swims at Malmok Beach and Baby Beach in the last couple of days. But there are a couple of things that are kind of bothering me. First, I simply do not understand this predilection with feeding the fish! In fact, it drives me crazy! In Canada recently, some tourists were fined for feeding wild animals. It is possible to get up to a $100,000 fine. It’s a dangerous practice to feed wild ANYTHING. I just don’t get it.

Barracuda I don’t like the way the fish act when this occurs. They get almost rabid, circling around, snapping and generally acting like animals! The problem I see is that this will encourage larger fish to see this as an opportunity to gobble up the smaller ones, and if a barracuda decided to strike, someone’s arm might get in the way. Barracuda are a nasty looking fish, but there has never been a recorded instance of them attacking humans directly. Humans have been bitten by barracuda, but only because they get in the way of them feeding. They circle near the bottom of the ocean, spying prey above them, as their eyes are in the top of their head. When they see something tasty, they can strike very, very quickly. If your arm gets between them and their prey, they’ll lay a chomp into you. So by feeding the fish, you’re covering yourself with barracuda dinner. And you could wind up the appetizer.

Juvenile blue parrotfish The other thing is the way people seem to think that coral is a chair in the ocean for them to stand on! Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve seen people standing on the coral. This will kill the coral. The more tour operators bring boat loads of people to great snorkel locations, the more beat up it gets. I’ve been on only one boat snorkel adventure, and that was on Grand Cayman. The operator was very clear that we should never stand on, or touch the coral. There is also a possibility that if you stand on the wrong coral, you’re going to get some nasty reaction. Fire coral for instance, will give you a nasty rash, and drive you crazy with itching. Some people even have allergic reactions, which can cause anaphylactic shock. So I don’t know if people are not being told by these operators, or if they are just ignoring what they’ve been told.

What ever the reason, just stop! Stop feeding the fish. Stop standing on coral. Stop being a bad tourist! respect the world around you, and it will last longer.