Since revenge travel is the newest trend everywhere, it seems like a lot of tourists need to be reminded of the right etiquette and attitude when visiting new places.
Just recently, a Facebook post from what seems to be a tourism organization in Malaysia trended all over social media after it called out tourists for bringing starfish out of the water–even for just a short while.
In the post by Majlis Pelancongan Lahad Datu, tourists and tour guides of Malaysia were asked not to touch starfish as fresh air is toxic to these sea creatures. So, when bringing them out of the water, “it’s a flip of the coin as to whether the poor creature can die from drowning or the stress of being semi-drowned so many times.”
The post also adds: “Wildlife are not our playthings. Just because a creature is slow enough to be caught by human hands, that doesn’t give us the right to do so, and the social media attention gained certainly does not justify the harm caused to the critter.”
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This viral post now has more than 18,000 shares and more than 5,000 reactions. Many comments commended the post for the reminder, and some admitted to not knowing how dangerous it is for starfish when they are caught by humans.
Let this be a reminder for us all to be more mindful of the places we visit during our next trips around the world.
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