Strange Stingray City: swimming with odd sea creatures on Grand Cayman - Port Attraction - Grand Cayman Island, Caribbean - Brief Article

Cruise Travel, July-August, 2002 by Max Hunn, Bea Hunn

It's an amazing sight as your boat glides into what's popularly known as "Stingray City" in North Sound on the Western Caribbean island of Grand Cayman.

There are probably several other tour boats already moored on the sand bar in the middle of the sound's broad entrance, which stretches from West Bay to Rum Point. When the 30-odd passengers in your boat get in the water, there are about a hundred people wading in waist-deep, crystal-clear water while feeding, petting, and touching 25 to 30 Atlantic southern stingrays, not exactly your typical saltwater playmates.

As you stand motionless in the soft sand--necessary to avoid kicking up sand and reducing visibility--you see black shadows in the crystal water zeroing in on your boat anchorage. Noise from your boat's engine and anchoring are dinner bells for these unusual rays, which have become accustomed to being handled and hand-fed.

The rays, with black backs and white bellies, come in all sizes, some as wide as six feet. These bottom feeders swim with a graceful, undulating movement of their pectoral fins, taking in water for respiration through large openings on the upper surface of their bodies.

Timidly, probably nervously, you stand motionless as a ray glides near, mentally trying to remember your guide's instructions. You are told to pinch a squid morsel between your fingers, while arching your fingers back like you're going slap someone as you put your hand in the water. The greedy rays quickly gobble the tidbit.

Forget to arch your fingers, and a ray might suck up your pinkies, causing a few jittery moments. Fortunately, rays lack teeth, but their lips are firm cartilage capable of being slightly abrasive. They don't do it intentionally. It's just they can't tell the difference between the squid and your fingers if they aren't properly positioned.

Naturally, every first-time visitor wants to know how and why these rays are so friendly. Any native can explain--it's accidental. These shallows were used for years by commercial fishermen for cleaning their catches before going to market. The bottom-feeding rays began scooping up the free meals. Divers began feeding experiments, and the rays cooperated. A new watersport was born. Skin Diver magazine is credited with coining the name "Stingray City" in 1987.

The local travel industry has fine-tuned the stingray business for cruise passengers. You board buses at the cruise-tender dock and are taken across the island to where the tour boats are berthed. Then it's a short cruise to Stingray City.

If you don't want to take a packaged trip, you can arrange to go with individual skippers. Boats depart from all along the island, and the saltwater cruise adds another facet to this unusual experience.

The tour boats are ultra-modern. Photo opportunities are ample, if you have a waterproof camera. However, don't despair if you don't. Our tour boat was state-of-the-art: If you lacked a camera, and wanted a picture, a crew-member obliged, using a digital camera. And aboard the boat was equipment to produce a print--for a fee, of course. A crew-member also is in the water with your party and is adept at holding up a ray for photo purposes.

While most cruise passengers prefer the wading experience, there's another means of encountering stingrays--scuba diving. There's a section of North Sound with 12-foot water where scuba divers can attract rays. If you're a qualified diver, you can rent equipment, and probably will enjoy the deeper Stingray City--it's less crowded than the sand bar.

Oddly, the rays seem especially attracted to humans in dive gear. The attraction is believed to be the result of the first hand-feeders being masked divers offering squid tidbits. The rays have never forgotten.

Undoubtedly, Grand Cayman's Stingray City is the most unusual water attraction in the Caribbean, if not in the world. Try it some time.

All major cruise lines plying the Western Caribbean have ships calling at Grand Cayman, most offering shore excursions to Stingray City. For more information contact your travel agent or the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism (Cruise Travel Magazine), 420 Lexington Ave./Suite 2733, New York, NY 10170; other North American offices are located in Chicago, Houston, Miami, Toronto, and George Town (Grand Cayman); or log on to www.caymanislands.ky.