If you somehow need another reminder about proper beach etiquette, let's start with this: Don't remove creatures from the ocean to take photos with them.
A baby dolphin died on the coast of Mojácar in southern Spain last week when, according to a report from Metro, the aforementioned cardinal rule was broken by a group of tourists who noticed a baby dolphin swimming in the shallow waters close to shore. Instead of guiding the lost dolphin back into deeper waters in the hopes of finding its mother, the tourists instead considered this a field day for their Instagram accounts, passing the dolphin back and forth for selfies and group photos.
Despite one concerned citizen's alerting the authorities, the dolphin was out of the water such a long period of time that it sadly passed away at the beach. Emergency rescuers were just 15 minutes too late to the scene. Equinac, an animal charity in the country, was quick to condemn the hundreds of people who took part in the photo-taking.
“The human being is the most irrational species that exists. There are many people who are incapable of empathy for a living being alone, scared, starved, without his mother, and terrified. Many of you, in your selfishness, all you want is to photograph and poke, even if the animal suffers from stress," Equinac said in a statement posted to Facebook, adding that "crowding around to photograph and touch it of course causes these animals to become extremely stressed." Equinac also noted that disturbing a dolphin in its natural habitat could be considered a criminal offense, and the group “will not hesitate for a second” to turn in to the authorities those who ignore this information in the future.
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In the last two years alone, three dolphins have reportedly died due to selfie-taking beachgoers. So yeah, don't do this, folks. Do better.
