Anonymous #3 12w

Fuck. You could travel 20 minutes down to the road to some cabin and in the mountains or something and I’d still count that

2

Anonymous #4 12w

As any normal person does lmao

1

Anonymous #3 12w

Ich bin ein Berliner

1

Anonymous #5 12w

What’s ur favorite fish species?? I wanna get into equine conservation

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Anonymous themind._.ofhueyfreeman25 12w

I’d probably say my favorite fish species are mudskippers. They aren’t the most obscure fish but they are such goobers

1

Anonymous #5 12w

Caving is so peak

1

Anonymous #5 12w

Type shit. Mudskippers are goody lil bros. I rlly love gar, more specifically alligator gars. I love how primitive they are

1

Anonymous OP 12w

I limit my caving somewhat because i dont have ppl to go with (recently moved across the country) so i dont go too deep. I’m also a bigger guy so i dont fw tight squeezes. But lava beds national monument in Northern California has some cool lava tubes you can go in. Some of them have indigenous petroglyphs near the entrances.

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Anonymous #5 12w

There’s some really big caves around Grants Pass Oregon that I am going to visit at some point

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Anonymous themind._.ofhueyfreeman25 12w

Gars are so cool. Definitely one of the fish species I miss from the southeast. We do have lots of sturgeons up in the PNW though which is cool.

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Anonymous #5 12w

Alligator gars are my favorites but I’ve only ever seen longnose gars in the wild because I’m from VA

1

I find tourism disgusting the same way many people find consumerism disgusting

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Anonymous #3 12w

God forbid people want to deepen their life experiences by visiting new places and cultures and widening their horizons

1

Keep treating the World like it’s your zoo

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Anonymous #5 12w

Tourism destroys the environment and native cultures

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Anonymous #3 12w

How dare people leave their hometown. People should stay in the same place forever until they die and never see anything new or understand the experiences of those from different cultures.

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Anonymous #5 12w

Sure most likely plenty of things to do and interesting history to learn about wherever you are already lol

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Anonymous #5 12w

We live in an era where you can see the world. It is unprecedented. What is the point of not taking advantage of it? See the redwoods. Snorkel with corals. Learn another language. Meet people of other cultures. Learn from their experiences. Try their food. You only have one life. Make the most of it.

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Anonymous #5 12w

That cruise line you took to snorkel in the coral dumped the most pollution in human history right into that ocean you claimed to love and will kill the coral ruining it for future generations

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Anonymous #3 12w

Some of the most beautiful parts of the world are not digitized. The majesty of a redwood does not come through in a photo. The wonder of seeing a whale swim beneath you. The intricate cultural experiences of being in another country. A great many archaeological sites are not digitized and are not well known outside of the local area.

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Anonymous #5 12w

Ok Ace Ventura

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Anonymous #3 12w

I didn’t take a cruise. I don’t like them. I took an outrigger canoe and camped on a desert island in the Florida keys. I participated in restoration projects to preserve coastal vegetation damaged by hurricane irma. I am a fish biologist. I do the real thing whenever I can.

1

Anonymous #5 12w

So do the sea turtles like the tourists climbing on the dunes?

0

Anonymous #3 12w

Are you familiar with ecotourism? It was an essential part of my degree. Without ecotourism, in many areas there is little incentive to preserve the environment, and few places for employment. I’ve been to the Galápagos Islands and to rural South Africa. The reason those ecosystems are preserved rather than destroyed is because they are more profitable for the local people to keep around. And that tourism is what gives local people employment.

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Anonymous #5 12w

Overtourism is bad. Tourism has to be managed sustainably. But there is a reason local governments try to promote it. Hell, I come from a tourist town. That’s the thing that sustains my hometowns economy. And there is a reason conservationists like myself see it as an essential part of preserving ecosystems.

1

Anonymous #5 12w

So the redwoods are valuable because people will pay to come see them gotcha. Otherwise they’d be coffee tables

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Anonymous #3 12w

You place restrictions. Everything must be managed sustainably. But those sea turtles are a draw now. They bring tourists in. Before tourism in the Caribbean they were common to eat. And without the income from tourism, more people would be forced to do so today.

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Anonymous #5 12w

We can find away to avoid people having to eat sea turtles besides letting people pay to come trample on the sea turtles

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Anonymous #3 12w

Yeah. So like in the part of South Africa I visited, outside of the nature reserves most of the large mammals have been hunted out of existence. The only place they still exist is within the reserves. And without tourists coming to see the lions, the local people would probably just kill them. It’s not worth the risk to themselves and their livestock. And the safaris are an essential source of employment in a pretty impoverished area.

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Anonymous #5 12w

This poverty issue could be solved without selling hunting tours

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Anonymous #3 12w

You need to find the right balance. I myself find many types of tourism reprehensible. I hate the sterile beaches of Miami. I tend to avoid cruises. I think gargantuan resorts are gross. But tourism is very important, it just has to be balanced.

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Anonymous #5 12w

Truly one of the best places I’ve been in regards to sustainable tourism is the Galápagos Islands. Tourism is strictly regulated there and is solely based around the wildlife. So no huge sterile beaches. Most of the businesses are locally owned, so no mega hotels displacing locals. Now people no longer eat the tortoises, and preserving the wildlife is what preserves the economy. And it’s a massive source of income that helps the Ecuadorean government fund poverty alleviation.

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Anonymous #5 12w

Think about it. People need to make income somehow. And if you live in a small tropical island, it’s going to be tourism, money laundering, or fishing and agriculture. Intensive tropical agriculture is super environmentally damaging. It’s good to have an economic value to preserving the forest. But it of course needs to be balanced, like anything does. Costa Rica is the poster child for ecotourism done right.

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Anonymous #3 12w

They need to bring money in somehow. An elephant is either going to be valuable poached or valuable as something tourists want to take pictures of. Ecotourism is the alternative to poaching in much of Africa. It’s the only thing keeping the gorillas in Rwanda alive. They’re too damaging to crops otherwise.

4