Snorkel Diver and Blue Sea Star

Blue sea stars of the Pacific, a person who is not used to them has difficulties to believe they can be so blue. I remember when I took my first picture of this sea star. The star filled most of the image with only a plain coral rock in the background. A friend of mine, an underwater photographer from Europe, thought I had not used a strobe that’s why the star was so blue. It was difficult to explain the star was actually that blue.

First time the picture above went public it received some criticism. The point was the young lady should not have either touch or hold the animal. It’s been a while since then yet I’m still wondering what a good approach would be. In general I agree with the stance of not disturbing (marine) animal though I would prefer to say I try to disturb them as little as possible. On the other hand it seems to me if we want to attract people to underwater world, help them to appreciate its beauty and, potentially, teach them to protect it I believe more senses, not you the sight, need to be involved. When I teach scuba diving I point with my finger to show interesting animals to my students and leave the decision what to do up to them. If they tend to disturb/touch too much I talk to them after the dive. If I go diving with my children I let them touch/hold animals if they find them exciting but we also discuss our attitude to the environment all the time.

A couple years ago my wife Ivana and I had a very funny experience. We were diving in a shallow water kelp forest near Auckland, New Zealand. We met a blue cod Parapercis colias. These fish are quite inquisitive, they approach divers closely, “sit” on the bottom and wait. This one was even more inquisitive. It got so close to Ivana’s palm that it touched her with it’s back. She started to caress it gently. Then another smaller individual appeared. It observed the situation from a distance but after a couple of seconds it got under Ivana’s arm and rubbed its back against it. We both had to laugh water filled our masks. Now tell me how to apply the “no touch” rule in such a situation.

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