Walking with starfish

Hello Steemians. This is my official entry for #BeachWednesday started by @uwelang and currently led by @lizanomadsoul. Last year was my first time to see a starfish up close and personal, having lived almost all my life on the foothills of one mountain or another. This was taken in one of the Philippines' protected wilderness areas, on the island of Alibijaban near the southern tip of the Bondoc peninsula.

Starfish are amazing creatures. It's a keystone species, a predator that eats almost anything it can catch including clams, oysters, and mussels. Because of this feeding habit, it prevents other animals from increasing in number to the point of becoming a pest.

Alibijaban is a rather tough place to go to, primarily because of its distance from the city. So it's fortunate that areas like this have been given Protected status by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which tries to regulate what can and cannot be done on the island.

For example, when these children grow up they will not be allowed to start their own families and build their houses here. They have to find another place perhaps in the city or the town proper. Because of the island's protected status, the number of residents must not increase. Visitors are allowed of course, which spikes in number during the summer and holidays. But they will not be allowed to own any property.

Considering that starfish and other marine life are sensitive to pollutants that humans invariably inject into the environment, it's good that there are still some places we can go to to experience nature in its relatively pristine condition.

So when you visit the beach or any other ecotourism site, please adapt the hiker's adage of leave no trace so that the next generation can still walk with a bunch of starfish just chilling on the sandbar.

For other pointers particularly on blogging about the ecotourism places you've been to, please check my other post on Lesser Known Ecotourism Sites

Thank you for reading :-)