Stingray city in caymans

[diverdoug1]

My wife got a BIG stingray hickey on her arm!

 

[diverdoug1]

Stingray city is in the northshore wildlife interaction zone, feeding of stingray is permitted there. (I e-mailed the Cayman's tourism bureau - did not expect to get such a fast response on a Friday afternoon!)

 

[Marek K]

Stingray city is in the northshore wildlife interaction zone, feeding of stingray is permitted there. (I e-mailed the Cayman's tourism bureau - did not expect to get such a fast response on a Friday afternoon!)

But the question is whether that feeding in the Wildlife Ineraction Zones is only allowed by DMs, or whether all divers/guests/tourists can do it too. I don't see any prohibition against the latter.

 

[diverdoug1]

But the question is whether that feeding in the Wildlife Ineraction Zones is only allowed by DMs, or whether all divers/guests/tourists can do it too. I don't see any prohibition against the latter.

I don't think there is, as I said, week before last, all divers were allowed to feed the stingrays. We were told not to lift them out of the water.

 

[Marek K]

We were told not to lift them out of the water.

And that's a good thing. You can debate feeding, but why anyone would lift a stingray (or any other fish) out of the water is beyond me.

That 2006 law is well documented -- "No removing of any marine life from the water" in Wildlife Interaction Zones.

 

[diverdoug1]

And that's a good thing. You can debate feeding, but why anyone would lift a stingray (or any other fish) out of the water is beyond me.

That 2006 law is well documented -- "No removing of any marine life from the water" in Wildlife Interaction Zones.

To explain very simply, the reason anyone would lift a stingray out of the water is because it makes for a great picture (just like when anglers pose with their catch prior to releasing it), but it is now against the rules for fear of injuring the stingrays and visitors. This activity was encouraged by divemasters at Stingray City throughout the 80's and 90's. Also, Marek K, where was that photo of you with the tank in your profile taken? Is that at Pelilu?

 

[Damselfish]

"No feeding any marine life with food of any kind or amount other than that approved by the Marine Conservation Board."

"I hope that the single package of frozen squid our boat had fell within those guidelines."

There also is talk in that one article about an exclusively squid diet possibly being bad for the rays. I'm guessing the idea is if they limit the amount fed from each boat the rays will have to go catch at least some of their own food, resulting in a more balanced diet?


So completely speculating here, maybe the sometimes heard "DM only" thing is done on some tours but as a matter of practicality rather than law. On a smaller boat with a reasonable number of divers a small package of squid is probably enough to give each diver some. On a cruise ship cattle drive tour that may not be the case plus it's probably more of a pain, and it would probably be easier for them to just say only the DMs are allowed to feed the rays (and blame the law as necessary?)

 

[Marek K]

where was that photo of you with the tank in your profile taken? Is that at Pelilu?

Nope. "Somewhere" in East Africa , where I was deployed a few years ago. A leftover of one of the Ethiopian-Somali wars a few decades ago. The Somalis had the U.S.-made equipment, to include the M-47 tanks. The Ethiopians had Cubans fighting for them, using Soviet equipment.

The Ethiopians won that particular battle, mainly because of the tactical situation that made it a no-win situation for the Somalis. As a former U.S. Army tanker, it was fascinating for me to decipher what happened. The Ethiopians were defending a narrow choke-point that allowed them to be in good hull-down positions. Strangely, I didn't see any battle damage to any of the Somali tanks, and most of them -- like this one -- weren't facing the Ethiopians. I'm certain they were maneuvering after being ambushed, and the rocky terrain made a lot of them throw their tracks. Which left the crews with little choice at that point but to abandon their vehicles.

Not sure how that commander's cupola I'm next to ended up about 20 meters away from its tank -- but there's been a lot of scavanging.

There were plenty of Soviet-made T-62 hulks around in other places, many of which did have battle damage:

/hijack

 

[nshuff]

I was just at stingray city sandbar last week, they had a container of squid floating around so anyone who wanted to, could feed them.