A man has documented himself "saving" a freshwater crayfish from a Russia supermarket and travelling to Turkey by plane, before mistakenly releasing the creature into sea water.

The baffling footage, captured on January 16, shows the man purchasing a crayfish, before placing it into a plastic bag filled with water. The man then boards a plane, displaying the creature in front of his plane window. The crayfish is later shown travelling by tram and being introduced to a local cat, before meeting it's salty demise.

Aleksey (@astapenkoya) posted the video to TikTok with the caption "save life," where it blew up, receiving over 49.9 million views and attracting much criticism.

"Why is no one asking how it got through security," one user said.

"When you try and do something for the greater good but you actually end up doing the wrong thing," another commented.

"I only found out that crayfish couldn't live in sea water after posting the TikTok. When shooting this video, I didn't think it would be so popular," Aleksey told Newsflare.

Yet, Aleksey still believes his video can spread awareness.

"I made a mistake but I decided to leave a video. I believe that thanks to this video, people will once again think about the conservation of nature.

"Every day in the world people buy and boil crayfish. No one thinks about it.

"Now I am preparing a game in the Appstore in which each player will be able to save crayfish. I plan to send part of the collected money to the nature protection fund."