Touchy Feely

[Mermaid Melanie]

I have been noticing a lot in the mermaid community images or pictures of mers picking things up underwater to pose with - touching marine life etc .... I feel terrible when i see this - you are not supposed to touch ANYTHING. As a diver I know all too well the effects of people disrupting the marine life - we used to have a huge frogfish on our local reef and he was there for quite some time until everybody found out about him and through being poked, prodded and disrupted in his home, he left.

Some Marine life can be greatly damaged by your touch ! - Some fish and cetaceans have a special coating like mucus on their skin and as our skin is not oily or lubricated when we touch the animal our hands take away some of their protective coating and leave then open to infections. I dont want to rant and rave I just feel like we should not be disrupting anything down there for benefit of a picture. Preserve and Conserve our Oceans ! Would love to know how you all feel about this ?

[SeaGlass Siren]

I agree with that. Sounds reasonable.

[Aziara]

Poor little fishies... While I understand the desire to pose with the wildlife, I also get that they are much more fragile than they look sometimes. So no cuddling the fish, folks :D

[AniaR]

Hmm that makes sense!

[Arella]

I feel ya

[Echidna]

yep, and it's not limited to mers (who might claim ignorance).
I've recently watched quite a few scientific films, where the biologists (certified biologists and marine biologists!!)
were handling the fish, scooping some of them up, cradling them, and then stroking them for a full minute.

And they were proud as heck they could do it.
I wanted to scream at them :/

and, well. They also dragged up some deepsea species to "examine" which all died in the process, but who cares, in the name of science everything's jolly right? :doh:

[WaterUmi]

There is a way to pose with the marine life with out touching them. But people all ways think that they are not going to hurt the if they are gentle with them, but as we all know that in wrong. what can we do scream and yell at them but its never going to stop. As a Mer i know not to touch when I'm in our ocean with all our friends.

look but no touchy..

[Ilyena]

It's amusing how we humans get all defensive when it comes to sharks 'touching' us. BUT when the it's the other way round, no one really cares. So maybe the sharks are just giving us a taste of what we do??

[Cordelia]

This is a pretty interesting topic that I've never really thought about before, possibly because I swim in areas where there is only a lot of sand and a few rocks beneath your feet. Definitely not the ocean! There are always a few little minnows in the shallows, but they're so quick that I don't think I could catch them if I tried really hard. It is super fun trying to swim with them, though.

Also, Ilyena, it's not just the sharks that people have to watch out for. Whenever we would go to the beach, all of the little minnows would come up and try to bite my mother's feet! Not exactly harmful, but still. They were going to send her a message: Get out of our lake! haha. XD

[Mermaid Kalliope]

The minnows might be cleaning her, too.

I've never really touched anything while swimming, but at aquariums, they have touch tanks and I've touched there. I think some want to touch so they feel fully part of the ocean. If that makes sense. Haha

[SeaGlass Siren]

See see no touch

[Cordelia]

I didn't think about that Kailani! Either way, she finds it very ticklish! lol

[Ilyena]

Cordelia: Oh, its not that I'm saying sharks are the only creature to be a bit of a bother in the ocean, just the most publicised. Aww, they're just trying to tell us something in their own special way XP

[Miyu]

This was something I was unaware of, due to (usually) not living in a coastal state. Even when I do live in a coastal state, it's always up north where it's not so nice to dive...

So thanks for the info, I will definitely keep that in mind when I get to experience diving :)

[angelstarfish]

thanks for this post- I didn't even think of this!!! amazing, the way some people this that sea life will warm up to them and that they'll become BFF's or something...

[Mary Marine]

I remember when I went to Hawaii and swam at Hanauma Bay they were VERY particular about that! First rule about Haunaua Bay: Don't touch Hanuama bay. Don't touch the coral, don't step on the coral, don't even LOOK too hard at the coral. Don't touch the fish, don't feed the fish, and especially don't touch the sea turtles! One of the girls in my group ended up pretty close to one and in trying to avoid running into the turtle the waves shoved her into the coral instead. Does it count if the coral touched you first?

[MermanJesse]

I seen the topic title and immediately thought "Can I touch your tail?"

Then seen were it was posted, and realized that it was not about fondling each other!

:crazy:

[Gem Stone]

Personally, I'm terrified to touch anything in the ocean. I've seen people touch what they thought was coral and end up slicing themselves on barnacles (notice I did not say they were smart, but I did see it happen) and I've also seen a manatee with scars all down her back and sides from people marking on her. I will admit, I actually did catch a mullet in my hands once, but I immediately let it go.

[Mermaid Melanie]

Just read these replies folks ! ( unrelated - i find it hard to keep track of threads I've posted in ..any suggestions about settings for that ? ) its great to see you all understand the no touch idea since this post I've been working on researching our local reefs which are very damaged due to novice divers, anchors and fishing net damage. Its sad to see but hopefully spreading the word will help other people understand also

[Mermaid Kelda]

i find it hard to keep track of threads I've posted in ..any suggestions about settings for that ?
Do you use the "new posts" feature to browse the forum? Because there's a little green icon next to the topics you've commented in (and a little blue arrow to go directly to the first post you haven't read)

Edit: additionally, if you go to your own profile, you can view your latest started topics, which shows you all the threads you have created. :)

[Jessica]

Thanks for posting this Melanie! I honestly had never thought about it before....and I've seen videos of mers holding starfish in the ocean....it does set a bad example!