Nafe & I were chatting over MSN
Asking me where he can swim with dolphins
He rejected my simplest idea of heading to the Dolphin Lagoon in Sentosa
I found him this instead

I then told him I wanna go to Mantanani Island to swim with dugongs
Despite the fact that he is clueless what dugongs are

As we chatted further
I start to think
What are the purpose of us traveling this far to just 'play' with these animals in the wild?
What harm could we have cause by being there?

Eco-tourism had become very popular lately
With national parks mostly opened to the publics
Little does one actually understand the impacts that are present

With increased human traffic
Disturbances increases
Obviously, animals living in their serene environment would least love to listen to the consistent rustling sound of moving grass as everyone of us step on the ground
Neither do they wish to wake up in the middle of the night in fear of hungry predators, only to find curious humans looking at them with infra-red binoculars
Not forgetting that the tracks on the grassland expand
Leaving more boundaries across
Creating more edge effect

I then think
Would it be a good choice for me to visit the dugongs then?
Giving the fact that dugongs are so rare in the wild now
The more I should go & take a look at them
& also to swim with them

But
Have I think about the fact that if I'm one of the 1000 people to play with the dugongs
How much stress can that poor mammal take from all of us?
Assuming that everyone pet his head at least twice
Is it plenty enough to cause a brain concussion?
Would I be contributing to the human disturbances too?

One solution is
Do not go to Mantanani Island
& increase the headcount of visitors
It's like recycling
The less paper you use, the less trees being cut down

I'm not so sure about this
Being an ecologist analysing all these are sometimes not very happy
As much as I'd love to visit places with exotic animals
Just to see them in the wild before they go extinct
I'd be glad to exclaim that 'Hey, I'd seen that!'
However, sadly, I'd also be one of the millions causing the extinction

By then
All thanks to me

I think
Eco-tourism isnt a good thing to start off with
Provided that it's being very well-maintained with sustainability measures highly & strongly re-inforced
With absolutely no loop-holes

That
I will give it a try