Problem with Stingray City Today

[jspang]

We took the Stingray City tour on 5/16. We have been there before (this was our 4th time) so we knew what to expect. We used Cat. Bryan's Buccaneer service. My initial personal opinion was they were "cheap" and only provided our group with approx. 2 cups of squid to feed the sting rays. I place a comment to their company and received a very well described reply why stingray city is not what it used to be. Please don't get me wrong, our experience was "OK" but nothing like in the past. I can understand how this area may not be there in the future with as much traffic as it receives. I have listed the letter below for anyone to read and it truly explains the problem there.

 

Dear:

Complaints on our services and tours are very rare, the reason we pay close attention to each and every disappointment in such close detail. Your point is well taken as well as the disappointment, especially if one had a different picture in their mind of Stingray City before the tour or have visited the same site in the past. Much has changed on the Stingray City Sandbar I am happy to say and I am glad that Operators are complying to directives given to all Operators within the past 2 years, but do wish 100% of Operators would comply with the directives which will be law within a short period of time.

 

Please allow me to explain: The days of gorging Stingrays with as much food as humanly possible are a thing of the past with all responsible Operators in the Cayman Islands. Not long ago all vessels would take 6 to 10 packs of squid and fed Stingrays non-stop for the 45 minutes spent on the sandbar (I being guilty of that practice countless of times) Stingrays were well overfed, taken out of the water and placed on passenger's heads as hats for pictures, taken out of the water for thrills and disregarded in everyway possible in order to entertain Clients.

 

Please consider this: A "normal" pack of squid, the same as you had encountered on your excursion last week weighs one pound. We were visited by approximately 8000 passengers on your arrival date, numbers show that more than half of all visiting cruise ship passengers visit the Stingray City Sandbar on each arrival day. 40 passengers were onboard our vessel with one pound of squid, all of which was given to the rays. Considering more than 4000 passengers visited the same area as you had on the same day if one pound of squid for every 40 passengers was given to 30 stingrays approximately 100 pounds of squid was handed over to our Stingrays.

 

Now consider this: In the not so distant past 6 to 10 packs of squid were taken to the Sandbar per vessel (6 to 10 pounds!) If we consider that 6 pounds for every 40 passengers was handed over to the Rays we are looking at feeding 30 stingrays over 600 pounds of squid, and please do consider that the above numbers are approximate and taken in modesty. During the Winter months when 11 Cruise Liners are visiting we often see well over 10,000 passengers on the sandbar, to say that one ton of squid was used over the course of one week would not be an exaggeration.

 

Extensive studies have been carried out by United States and European Universities as well as our own Department of Environment on the Southern Stingray population of our Island for the past 3 years. I would guess that there is no place on Earth were eco-scientists can study Stingrays any better than the Cayman Islands where Stingrays are not elusive and maintain a close proximity to one area. All studies came to the same conclusion: Our Rays are grossly obese, they no longer feed on their own and are dependant on human interaction in order to sustain they newly created eating habit. Because of their "new figure" the Stingrays are mutating, not only in normal behavior but in reproduction and genetic makeup. If the trend of yesterday was to continue Stingray City could have been emptied of Stingrays within a few years, and the sandbar could have possibly become an underwater desert.

 

The directives proposed to all Operators visiting Stingray City by the Department of Environment was basic and plain common sense: Stingrays cannot be over fed (should really not be fed at all) should not be taken out of the water for amusement of Guests and above all number of visitors to the Stingray City Sandbar restricted to 1/2 of the present number of visiting Passengers.

 

Many Operators have been in discussion over the Stingray City issue and have all agreed to stop many practices as we did in the past. Many sensible Operators now carry just enough squid to attract the Stingrays, which is what squid should be used for, attracting not feeding. (I now visit the sandbar without squid and equally enjoy the area as Stingrays come to you either way, with out without squid) Unfortunately we still have a handful of Operators who are completely disregarding any directives forwarded on to us by the Department of the Environment which is forcing our Government to implement laws and regulation for an activity which was once free for all. New regulations will call on the practice which disappointed you: Squid is to be used only as an attraction rather than feeding, regulate number of visitors to the Sandbar as well as the most important aspect of the Sandbar Laws which will turn the area in to a Protected Area which will fall under the Department of Environment Regulatory Body (strange enough the Sandbar is currently not protected and falls just on the out skirts of the Marine Park area of the North Sound)

 

As the Managing Director of a Company which organizes Tours for well over 15,000 passengers a year to stingray City I personally cannot overlook the environmental damages which I and our Company can personally cause if we do not do our very best to have a minimal impact on our Wildlife. All I can truly say is this: We will leave it to Sea World to abuse animals for the benefit of people's macabre infatuation with abuse of animals living on our planet. We will leave it to the Dolphin Swims of the World to mistreat "their animals" and abuse them by overworking them to the point of early death ("What the heck, one dies we just buy another, the last one made us $1,000,000 anyways!") We will not support, endorse or approve the abuse of any Animal encountered on our Excursions in all of our serviced Ports. (We are extremely active in our campaign against Dolphin Swims) **On a side note: During our Port inspections in Belize 3 weeks ago we were considering a new snorkeling excursion offered and enjoyed a great Capt. to the Belizean Cays. 100ft from shore a pod of Dolphins was gently swimming with 5 newborn Dolphins in barely 10 feet of water. The Capt. of course pointed out that the Dolphin are there often during and following the birth of their babies and what a great excursion that would make! My response? "Finding these Dolphins on our outing is a gift. Taking our Clients here everyday would be exploitation!" Needles to say the tour is not offered on our service.**

 

Call me a tree hugger, a fanatic Green, whatever, but I will at all times do my best to protect the Environment in which we live in, and also do my very best to protect species in other Countries. We are truly not being "cheap with our squid", 1 pack costs $2usd, but I can assure you that if nothing is done to protect our Stingrays the complaint you will log to CruiseCritic as well as the "new company" you will choose will be "I went all the way to Stingray City with "so and so" and they only had 1 stingray!!!!"

 

On the photographs part (not included in your complaint, but should have since you complained to the wrong people) I agree 100%. Photographers and videographer are, in my opinion, getting out of hand. The photographers found on our Catamarans are a third party Company and are there to take pictures for the many passengers who request photographers and videographer onboard (60% of our Clients request the service) You will find many photographers at the Sandbar from all companies including your Cruise Liner, many passengers cannot figure out how they went on our trip and the Ship still had their photo on display once onboard, the same as other passenger who have used the Ship excursion. Passengers are overwhelmed by the photos and it is a practice we would like to stop if the photographers are being too pushy, one Company was already removed form our vessels due to the same. I will bring your point forward to the Company responsible for your discomfort, perhaps they will realize that "no means no".

 

Regards,

 

Matteo Uggeri

Managing Director

Island Marketing Ltd (Cayman)

http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com

http://costamayacruiseexcursions.com

http://cozumelcruiseexcursions.com

http://caymanislandsdiscounts.com

http://belizecruiseexcursions.com

http://grandcaymantimeshare.com

http://jamaicacruiseexcursions.com

http://morrittsgrand.com

[drefinnej15]

wow..that's a lot of information. but it's good to know...i feel bad for the poor stringrays now :(

i never put a stingray on my head though for a photo opportunity!

[Eliot Ness]

That was a lot of good information, thanks for sharing! We did a stingray tour back in 2000, so it will be interesting to see how it compares to the one we are taking this summer. I don't recall our tour guides ever picking them up out of the water (but I have seen pictures of other tours that did), but it was sure neat feeding them.

 

John

[jspang]

John, we also did stingray city in 2000 and before. Not as good now but make the best of it. They all are doing the singray back rub where they have the stingray flop on your back plus having everyone kiss the stingray for 7 years good luck. If you really want to feed them get the food quickly when you get in the water. Have fun!

[Starz723]

I really do hope that all the companies take heed. It would be a horrible shame to come back in time and there not be a stingray city.

 

I have to tell you all..that I was in Grand Cayman in 1971. There were no cruise ships, no commercialization (except for the banks), only a handful of tourists who rented condos, stayed at the beach club colony or the holiday inn. Thats it!

 

Stingrays were totally wild back then. There was no stingray city. I would snorkel at 7 mile beach and they would be swimming around all over. They kinda scared me back then because I didnt know much about them. I even saw an eagle ray swim right underneath me. That scared me so much I didnt go back in the water for 3 days. But that was my ignorance. I also remember being taken to a conch bed and 3 conchs were brought up and we ate it for lunch and I still have those amazing conch shells. I can remember saying that if they did that to every person they took out, there would be no more conch. At that time, they did not envision tourism to the capacity it is now. Guess what, those conch beds were depleted many years ago...and they no longer are there..Its a shame, but guidelines must be set up.

 

This is a good post for all to see. I am glad that Capt Bryan is observing the guidelines for the sake of the stingrays.. He has a business that thrives on them being alive and well. Overfeeding them and over handling them can eventually lead to their demise.

 

I was very lucky to see Grand Cayman when it was pristine. It also had the most horrendous mosquitoe problem at that time.

[jspang]

That was interesting from a veiw from the past. Your quite right regarding the future of this island. So much to lose there. But as you know it's all about $$ and when you see 3 cruise ships in there that island is a large city for the day.

[Middleager]

Thanks for sharing the info. Not knowing how many stingrays are in the area, I did wonder how much feeding they could take. But with the stats that about 1/2 of the cruisers go to Stingray sandbar, that's a lot.

 

When we get there this Aug., there will be 2 ships. That'll be 4000+ cruisers and if 1/2 go then there'll be 2000+ people to the SR sandbar throughout the day. Imagine if there are 6 ships in port, or 11 ships in port in winter?!? When I was inquiring a diving trip to adda 3rd tank to SR sandbar, the dive op said they don't go to the sandbar because there are 1,500 people there and it's an accident waiting to happen. At first I thought that was an exaggeration, but now understand it.

[twinkletoes4445]

You should see what the place is like with 5-6-7-8 or 9 ships. Two ships in port is enough. I'm not sure what they are thinking by allowing that many ships in port. I do know that I probably would never choose to go to GC on a cruise ship again. It's just too many people. When we were there in January for the week, we either hung out at the condo and beach area, or scooted to the other side of the island. The entire 7MB area is just mobbed with people.

 

I do hope they reconsider how many ships they allow in port. It's ruining the place. :(

[Starz723]

oh my..

 

I really wish you all could have seen Grand Cayman when they first opened it for tourism. It was a pristine island.. With only 1 flight a day and no cruise ships. And as unbelievable as this may sound, they had just gotten telephones and there were no tvs in the rooms and no radio. Im talking austere, but the island people were simply amazing and were just getting in touch with the outside world. Hard to believe isnt it, but its true.

 

I went on an excursion by having a husand & wife team approach us at the bar at the beach club colony and ask if we would like to go out on their boat for anything..fishing, snorkeling, conch shells, etc. It was the Eubanks family that now has many operations going on there. They were entrepreneurs and it paid off. I went on their one motor boat at the time.

 

I literally would only see a handful of people on 7 mile beach.

 

Now when I go with the hordes of people, I will remember what it used to be like.

[MamaParrotHead]

Looking forward to going to SRC on our Triumph cruise 4/07. I probably would have been on the tour, and been like, "what?!" when such little bait was used and may have even written an email. Thanks for saving me the time. Sounds like that man really has his priorities straight and that's very heart-warming, considering what his options are.

 

And thanks for the perspective, Starz..also very interesting.

[twinkletoes4445]

Starz...That sounds wonderful! Wow, GC has changed a lot...but most things do over that amount of time. My family has a cabin up in the Colorado mountains. For years, it was nothing more than a little "mountain town" with a dinky grocery store. Now when we visit, it makes me so sad to see what has become of this sleepy village. But at least I have my memories! :)

 

I can't even imagine how lovely GC was back then. We love it now...but there are just too many people there these days. I do hope they reconsider the number of ships they allow in port. It's just out of hand.

 

I would have loved to have visited GC back when it was like you described.

 

MamaParrotHead...Our first visit to GC was on the Triumph. Have a wonderful time! :)

[DreDay]

I'm so glad you shared this for two reasons

 

1. So that the rest of us are not disappointed when we get a little cup of squid.

 

2. To help shed light on a good company. I'm impressed that they would respond to your complaint with such vast information and I'm glad to know that they are voluntarily looking out for the best interests of stingrays. I think this shows class.