GC Feed the Fish ??

[cowprintrabbit]

My husband and I will be on Grand Cayman one day next week (cruise port-of call) and he's found a place that will do a 20' dive near Stingray City. I've heard that they sometimes wrap themselves around divers looking for food. Has anyone ever done this? I'm afraid I'll freak out and ascend or something (<10 dives under my weight belt). On the other hand, is it a really cool experience I don't want to miss, and I will forget my fears once I'm down?

 

[H2Andy]

i haven't done the dive; i hear it's cool.

there is an non-diving option where you stand in water up to your waist and
feed the rays. very nice too; maybe you should look into that if diving with them
makes you uncomfortable. better safe than sorry, right?

 

[DandyDon]

cowprintrabbit,

I'm pretty sure they'll have y'all with snorkels only - no Scuba. If you want to ease into it, don't carry any bait at first. I wouldn't miss it for anything!!

But I'd also wear a full length skin, to protect against hickies.

 

[Damselfish]

cowprintrabbit,

I'm pretty sure they'll have y'all with snorkels only - no Scuba. If you want to ease into it, don't carry any bait at first. I wouldn't miss it for anything!!

But I'd also wear a full length skin, to protect against hickies.

I wouldn't assume they'll be doing snorkel - if they found a place that says a 20' dive then I'd think it's a 20' dive. Something arranged through the cruise ship ismore likely to be snorkel but this doesn't sound like that.

It's pretty cool and something not to miss if you're there and interested, but you could always do a snorkel trip if you don't think you'll be comfortable diving. (If diving, it will be somewhat harder than usual to accidentally bolt to the surface if you follow the usual recommendation to overweight yourself for this dive so you can plant yourself on the bottom.)

 

[Hank49]

[Fish feeding is not really good for the fish. There was one site where I worked where most of the dive shops let divers feed the reef fish. But we noticed that many of the fish developed lesions on the skin and it was only at this site. It was presumed that it was caused by many people touching them as they came in close and wiped off the protective slime that fish have as a defense against fungus, bacterial infections etc. All the shops agreed to stop the feeding activity.