Stingray City in Grand Cayman Island is suffering in attendance due the Steve Irwin incident.  Tourism at the attraction is down about 60%.  As a diver at the Shedd Aquarium, occasionally, I will feed the Southern and Spotted Stingrays.  These gentle animals are non-aggressive and will eat right out of my hand.

Many divers visit Stingray City to experience feeding and getting close to the Stingrays.  The stingrays do not have any teeth and use a sucking method to remove the food from a flat surface.  Their tail stinger works as a defensive mechanism only.  The tail has an involuntary action.  Stingrays are often buried under the sand, in shallow water, in the ocean.  Shuffling your feet as you walk into the water will alert a stingray in your path and it will swim away.   So don’t be afraid or worried when swimming, snorkeling or diving with Stingrays.  They are beautiful and peaceful creatures of both fresh water and oceans.

And if you don’t want to interact with marine stingrays you can alway go to a Stingray hockey game.  

Editor’s Note:  We realize this article might seem like an advertisement so we wanted to mention, we clearly mark sponsor related offerings.  These days it is sometimes tough to tell the difference.  We do encourage sponsors to contact us at, sponsorship [at] scubaology [dot] com.  The above article was not sponsored in anyway.