Environment is no one’s property to destroy; it’s everyone’s responsibility to protect. – Mohith Agadi
A little family vaca
On my fifteenth birthday, my family and I decided to go on a little family vacation. We decided to go on an island hopping. This was probably the fourth time we were going on island hopping. At first, some of the family members hesitated to go on an island-hopping since we already did it a lot of times before. But we realized that what we were doing didn’t really matter so much, but with who we were doing it with. On the 9th of May, we headed to Lapu-Lapu, since that’s where the island hopping services were.
I was more than delighted to be on the beach again. Seeing the sky so blue, seeing the fishes swimming, seeing the birds flying in the sky, seeing my family all together. It was a hot sunny day. As we arrived on the first island I didn’t jump straight to the ocean water as I wanted, because I didn’t want to get sunburn. As the boat was driving fast, taking us to the next island. I was so astonished by the ocean. But that astonishment went away as I saw the trash floating on the ocean. How sad that we are the cause of all that.
All I need is a good dose of vitamin sea.
Starfishes
Fun fact: Starfishes can regenerate their own arms
We were searching for fish in the ocean and then we saw starfishes instead and many different kinds of fish. We were so fascinated by the starfishes that we found and took them out of the water. We were taking pictures of them to share on our social media. But little did we know that by taking them out of the water, we were killing them. Weeks after we went on our little family vacation I read an article about how starfishes die when you take them out of the water.
What happens when you take a starfish out of the water?
Like all marine animals, starfishes are a body found in the sea for a simple reason: They do not breathe air. Although this is very logical, some people are captivated by their beauty without thinking about the damage that they could suffer.
Maybe you heard someone say that if you take a starfish out of the water immediately dies in 1 minute, 5 minutes, etc. It is not something that happens exactly in 1 minute, but if you put and remove them several times, even for less than 30 seconds, they could die.
The starfish captures oxygen in the water for breathing process through these skin gills and when these species are removed from their aquatic habitat, they can not perform gas exchange for their life cycles, which they suffer poisoning of dioxide or carbon monoxide and they die in a short time, it means that they drown in 3 to 5 minutes depending on the specimen.
I was heartbroken when I read the article. Finding out that the starfishes that we took out of the water that day had drowned. Now, to some people, this wasn’t really that big of a deal. But for me it was. I guess it will be a big deal when it would be reported on the news that starfishes are going extinct. And then that’s the time that we would take action...when it’s too late
Here are some tips on how to protect starfishes:
Pick up your trash (and other people’s) on the beach You’re not just cleaning up the environment, but also teaching (by example) others who are enjoying the natural resources about responsible tourism.
Avoid picking up starfishes from beaches.
Share this information with friends and acquaintances. The more people will know, the faster we will stop practicing these bad habits that damage this natural treasure of our beaches.
Have a great day ahead! Peace out✌️
Disclaimer: This was originally posted on my website for educational purposes. Click here to check it out.