Fear of Stingrays?

[tgunn1978]

I did the Deluxe Stingray City Sandbar Tour through Carnival that is operated by MarineLand Tours. I must admit that I never feared interacting with them. But others do, and I will share some of the information with you all that our guides told us.

 

A lot of people fear Stingrays because of the way that Steve Irwin died. This will not be an issue on the sandbar because of these reasons:

 

Steve Irwin was in very deep water filming a documentary and swam over the top of a ray, from behind. They can't see what is behind them due to the placement of their eyes. Steve swam up from behind and over the ray and attempted to grab it and ride it through the water. A stingrays biggest predator is a shark. They attack from behind, and the ray feared for its life, and used its barb to survive what it thought was an attack by a shark. We were also told that a stingray has only ONE barb to use for its entire life. They don't grow back. Once it is used, that's it. So they will only use their barb to escape a shark attack. The water on the sandbar is only waist deep. They have adapted to this area because they are fed regularly, and they do not have to venture into dangerous, deep water where sharks live to hunt for food. These rays LOVE people! Tourists to the sandbar are their daily food source, and they are happy to see you. When they hear a boat motor, they associate it with dinner time, and eagerly wait for you to get into the water to feed them their squid etc. They don't have teeth. So when you feed them,...keep your thumb down, and hold the squid in your fist with it sticking high enough up for the ray to suck it out of your fist. Otherwise you will get a hickey! If you haven't done this, you are missing out. Grand Cayman is beautiful, and the rays are awesome! Please feel free to ask any questions you wish about my experience.

[CocoaMom]

excellent info, thanks for sharing. We loved going there as a family, fantastic time (although we used a different company).

 

 

Also, just curious - was it a smooth ride out there & roughly the number of passengers?

 

Thanks!

 

Edited - I just saw your other review regarding stairs!!

Edited January 23, 2014 by CocoaMom

[iuki]

Thank you so much. You have addressed my concerns. We will be going to Grand Cayman in April, and I want to go to Sting Ray City.