DO NOT TOUCH THE SEA STARS: Starfish beach

Research by professor Carolyn Kovacs aimed to determine whether human activity at the beach is disrupting the population of sea stars on starfish beach Bocas Del Toro.

For two weeks students conducted a series of snorkeling surveys that examined the sea stars size, abundance, feeding behavior, and movement.

Starfish beach has many visitors every year and many visitors to the islands are unaware that repeatedly picking up sea stars may harm these animals. Sea stars are covered in small gills, and so if they are lifted out of the water, they are unable to breathe.

In addition, they have a second stomach that they extrude and externally digest their food when sea stars are picked up, even under the water, they pull in this stomach and stop feeding.

Kovacs has created and added signs into restaurants in the hope of educating people about the dangers they pose to the sea stars when touching and moving them just in order to get their ‘sea star selfie’.

Many people have the ‘Its only one’ mentality but when hundreds of people have this mentality it is not ONLY ONE. Your Instagram is not worth a sea star death.