Stingray City: A Family Business - Sportdiver.com - Scuba Diving, PADI, Scuba Equipment, Dive Equipment, Scuba Diving Certification, Dive Travel

Image by Geri Murphy

Stingray City is the best family entertainment in the Caribbean! Stingray City is unquestionably the best family entertainment in the Caribbean. I have witnessed the expression of joy on the face of a 69-year-old great grandmother, and the gleeful yelps of a 4-year-old child. It is an incredible experience for visitors of all ages and all water skills. Divers come to scuba, while swimmers snorkel and non-swimmers wade in the knee deep shallows. Fully-clothed visitors who prefer not to dunk can share the experience through the transparent window of a glass bottom boat. Stingray City is a community of congregating stingrays that live in the shallow sand flats of Grand Cayman’s protected North Sound. The deepest depth is only 12 feet and at neighboring Sandbar the seafloor gradually slopes upward to 9, 6, and even 3-feet of water. You can find the stingrays at all different depth levels, as they generally go to where the visitors are located. Water temperature can range from a delicious 80 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit – like taking a luke warm bath. Underwater visibility is changeable, depending on whether the tide is coming in or going. Fifty feet visibility is common, and it can reach a crystal blue 100-foot clarity on the incoming tide. Although the stingrays have been there for decades, but have only come to the diver’s attention in the last 15 years. Caymanian fishermen used this spot as a safe haven, away from the rough open seas, where they could clean their fish. The stingrays in turn, fed upon the scraps of fish tossed over the side. Once the site was discovered, it did not take long for the divers to make friends with these remarkable creatures. It is a natural feeding area and nursery, where female stingrays can rear their young. Located just inside a barrier reef, the site is fed with clean ocean water on the incoming tides. The sea floor is a soft heavy grain sand, loaded with the stingray's natural foods – clams, conchs, crabs and small crustaceans. Because of the shallow water surroundings, the stingrays are fairly well protected from natural predators. As it turns out, Stingray City is sort of a family business. Since these rays have been breeding at this location for decades, you will find multiple generations all living together. The stingrays travel in family groups and the dive guides can point the successive generations. The great grandmothers have wingspans of 5 to 6 feet, gliding across the sand bottom like B-2 Bombers. Swimming below and around them are babies with 10-inch wingspans. In between these two extremes are stingrays of every size and age, all living together in harmony. What makes Stingray City so very special is the extraordinary interaction between a group of wild animals and the presence of humans. The excitement begins with the arrival of a dive boat, as the sound of the engine reverberates like a dinner bell. A group of 10 to 15 stingrays joyfully encircle the boat like puppies at the feeding bowl. Some of them come right up to the dive platform at the stern of the boat. And as you look out across North Sound, you can see several more dive boats with stingrays grouping around them. The population of rays has grown well over 100. Once underwater, the divers find these rays flying around them in an exuberant greeting. Accustomed to the presence of divers, they swoop in – brushing, bumping and nuzzling the new arrivers, in anticipation of a food handout. The rays are very competitive among themselves and frequently execute breathtaking acrobatic maneuvers. Banking and making tight turns, twisting, rolling and looping right in front of the divers. They appear to enjoy the interaction as much as their human counterparts. There is still another aspect of this family business. The discovery and development of Stingray City has brought with it worldwide fame for the Cayman Islands. Stories about this phenomenon have appear in hundred of magazine and newspapers around the globe. Television networks and major magazines produced feature coverage on the rays and their exuberant behavior. As a result, at least 8 out 10 Cayman Island visitors make the trek out to Stingray City. It has become a sub-industry that feeds a lot of Caymanian families. I have logged more than 100 dives at this site and yet, I still look forward to my next visit. Stingray City is for me, is a very special place in the world – as well as in my heart. It provides a rare opportunity to commune with wild sea animals who appear totally unafraid of my presence. And, I share the privilege of observing the incredible beauty of these utterly graceful creatures. They way they curve their wings for a tight turn, hover above the sand and perform acrobatic loops make the stingrays seem like joyful angels in a heavenly sea. For more information about visiting the Cayman Islands, click on the home page below.

	Reef
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	I love them all!

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