Photos of super-excited Thai tourists ignorant enough to pet a baby shark pulled from the waters of Koh Phi Phi has enraged the online community this week after a marine activist helped spread the word.
Following viral photos of tourists touching star fish – not to mention former beauty queens mugging with kidnapped babies – marine activist Thon Thamrongnawasawat condemned the tour group and its operator online yesterday and encouraged officials to intervene.
“So now they catch baby sharks for tourists?” he wrote. “They let her suffocate on the land while humans rubbed and took selfies with her. I don’t even know what to say.”
The post was shared nearly 2,000 times.
The source of the photos was not enclosed, but the cringe-worthy caption said, “Nothing is more exciting than getting to pet an alive shark during Koh Phi Phi trip. The boat operator caught it for us.”
Thon encouraged netizens to share the photos as a bad example of what people should not do when visiting an island.
Last week Similan and Surin national parks were closed off from tourists for five months because the underwater ecology, including coral reefs, were destroyed by huge numbers of visiting tourists.
