Being part of nature itself

            Part of my study abroad experience in Zanzibar, Tanzania, involved spending one month on my own doing marine related research. For that, I decided to look at the distribution and feeding habits of coral reef fish during high versus low tide and chose to stay on Misali Island, an island a few miles off of Pemba Island. This island had no inhabitants, except for 5 rangers who were there at all times to ensure that no illegal fishing was taking place in this marine protected area.

            During 3 weeks, I slept on the beach, under a mosquito net and snorkeled during the day to understand the behavioral patterns of coral reef fish in the area. I spent two to three hours everyday, hovering above coral reefs—it was breathtaking. At first, fish noticed me, they were curious, aggressive or scared depending on the species but after a few days of going to the same site, the resident fish stopped noticing me. It was like I had become part of their ecosystem—a feeling I had never experienced before. It was an incredible feeling to be able to watch wildlife run its course without human interference and for me to be able to watch them having for only sound the soft clicking of the seafloor clams.

            One day, I witnessed a group of fish doing their courting displays. The female was hovering over a coral and the males were aligned to her right. One by one they left the “waiting line,” danced around the female and formed a new line on the female’s left side. When they had all performed the exact same dance with the female, she swam towards them all and left with only one of the males. The others dispersed and resumed their normal activities. It was unreal, magical.           

            Such encounters with nature should be available for everyone to experience. Wildlife in its natural environment is not only beautiful but it also raises people’s environmental consciousness. This is why we should all be concerned with “saving nature.” Humans were once part of nature but we’ve been gradually alienating ourselves from it by turning towards technology and synthetics. All in all, it is of uttermost importance to preserve nature for three main reasons:

1. because nature as inalienable rights, its wellbeing has value in it of itself and humans are in no position to take away these rights.
2. because Humans have no right to deprive future generations from experiencing nature the way we do.
3. because nature renders humans an endless list of services, called ecosystem services. So destroying nature will create chaos and raise the strength of the environmental threat that we are currently facing. (e.g. if we take away wetlands, we are more prone to destruction through storms; if we destroy rainforests, less carbon will be sucked from the atmosphere, exacerbating global climate change.)