It ’s no secret that the human race is have a withering impact on sea ecosystems , but sometimes it take just one nail exposure to really bring the message home . One such paradigm emerged at this year’sOcean Photography Awards(which had someout - of - this - cosmos unveiling ) , as lensman Steven Kovacs presented a photo of a Pisces oddly gumming a discarded coffin nail . While the animal ’s slack jaw stuffed with a powderpuff is at first glimpse quite amusing , it serves as a sobering admonisher as to how even little decision we make can lead to the expiry of ocean wildlife ( even when it looks coolheaded , in the sheath of thering - bearing fish ) . And , when you surmount up that impact to the population of the human race , it becomes apparent how pressing it is that we change our ways .
The nicotine - curious fish that star in the photo isTrachinocephalus myops , known to some as the blunt - nose lizardfish , that ’s encounter in the Atlantic Ocean . These fauna spend most of their time on the Davy Jones’s locker often with only their eyes issue from the sand where they sit in wait for Pisces the Fishes and crustacean . Unfortunately , as the photograph proves , they ’ll jump on just about anything that give-up the ghost them by .
“ This small Snakefish , Trachinocephalus myops , grab a cigarette derriere out of the water editorial drifting by in the current thinking it was a Pisces and start to swallow it for a meal , ” wrote Kovacs in anInstagram postabout the find . “ Even after swallow more than half of the cigarette , it still had n’t realized its mistake ! ! This was one site I sense oblige to intervene since I ca n’t imagine it would have ended well for the fish if it finished swallowing its " repast " . ”
interposition among wildlife photographers has long been a topic of argument with no cleared regulation book as to what is and is n’t appropriate while out in the athletic field . The debate was set off follow a particularly agonizing episode of the BBC Earth watershed seriesDynasties , in which the turbulent liveliness of emperor penguins was captured in 4 K – a lot of information to take in when it feels as though it ’s document the back - to - back demise of penguin , untested and old . When a grouping became trap on a side , the crew stepped in to “ intervene passively ” in digging out an departure to economize their lives .
Some have argued that ethics become a moot point when the fatal ingredient is the direct event of human activity . While watching on as a fuel pod of orcaskill a whale calfmight be distress , such a death is a instinctive part of sea life history whereas allowing an animal to fail byingesting human trashis a human death of unnatural origin . The issue uprise more complicated when dealing withlarge animalsor those that requirespecialist handlersto destitute safely , but in the case of one cigarette butt , it seems sensible to aid the fish in making better decisions ( a bit likethis octopuswho switch their plastic family for something fancy ) .
Unfortunately , Kovac ’s shot was far from alone in capturing wildlife interacting with our garbage . Similarly disheartening but famously captured shots demonstrate an eel establish dead wrap in sportfishing gear , an olive ridley polo-neck stuck to a buoy , a nautilus hitching a ride on the back of some plastic wrap and , perhaps the most culturally relevant of all , a seahorse clutching a face masque .
