I saw something today that upset me. I was in Coupeville about 1:30 p.m. to see one of the very low tides of the season. The docks at the end of the pier were sitting on the ground. We walked down the ramp to the dock and saw all kinds of sea life on the bottom of the cove; shellfish, crabs and sea stars. The seagulls were having a feast. Many animals were no longer in the water and were waiting for the tide to come in.

As I was marveling at the abundance of sea life under and near the pier, I heard the screams of children on the beach heading for the pier. There were four adults and about 15 children walking on the beach and under the pier without a care for the animals they were walking on and killing. I watched a teacher pull a sea star off a pillar and hold it up for the children to see, while she was standing on the leg of another sea star. The children and adults were walking on, standing on and destroying life under their feet, without any care.

People go on about saving the world. The talk is cheap and easy. Very few people can make a difference in what happens in the “world.” Everyone can make a difference where they live but that actually takes an effort.

The teachers could have had the children watch and learn about these sea creatures from the dock. They didn’t need to walk on them. This could have been an opportunity to teach the children to be careful of the environment. Instead, they were learning, by example, to be careless of the life around them, instead of protecting it.

Linda Kendall

Oak Harbor