Crikey, it’s Stingray City!
Tuesday, 5th September 2006 by Alex Turnbull
We feel sure that the undoubtedly great, and now very sadly late Steve Irwin wouldn't blame the stingray that brought about his untimely demise for a single second. In fact we reckon that Steve probably wouldn't want these normally very passive creatures getting a bad reputation, as he was one of only a handful of people who have ever been recorded as being killed by one.
So in Steve's honour, we'd like to welcome you to the Cayman Islands very own Stingray City, a series of shallow sand bars where stingrays are found in abundance and visitors can feed, pet, and swim with these incredible creatures. Around each of those boats, you can clearly see the dark shapes of their bodies as the rays congregate to be fed by tourists.
This post is dedicated to Steve, his wife Terri, and their young family.
More on Steve Irwin, Stingray City, the Cayman Islands and of course Stingrays, at Wikipedia.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
“I have no fear of losing my life – if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it.”
— Steve Irwin
Argh, i feel stupid, I’ve been to stingray city before and have already found this on google earth but i didnt think it was worth submitting. Now look what happens. 🙁
Been there twice. Always fun to feed them squid.
When I submitted this I hadn’t heard yet about Steve Irwin. Sort of creepy, really…
too soon, guys, too soon. I’m still mourning. 🙁
While rays are generally passive, and notwithstanding the fact that most people now know that fact, I’d bet quite a large sum of money that a lot of places like Stingray City are about to go out of business.
hmmmm… and what do we see on that sight? beside the boats? are the shadows in the water stingrays? or what is special about that sight?
I too have been to Stingray City and it qualifies as one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Having visted just about every aquarium in the US, and living right next to the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium, I get too used to seeing dynamic wildlife behind glass. Being able to swim with these creatures doesn’t even compare. You simply HAVE to do it.
And to the people such as Dave who asked “and what do we see on that sight”…I answer…you see lots of dots and not much, if any detail. However, those dots near the boats are a mix of people and rays, the resolution simply isn’t sufficient to discern which is which. But…trust me…there are an equal amount of each. Check out this link to see qhat I mean. http://www.stingraycitytrips.com/photo_album/index.shtml
BTW…this is the first time ever that I have seen this satellite image. What -I- found most exciting is that I zoomed -OUT- and finally got to see just how close we were to the edge of the reef. This edge, or “The Edge” as it’s referred to locally, is where the true wildlife exists and danger lurks. It’s as dramatic as it looks here, even with the resolution differences.
WOW!
> incredible creatures
Surely ‘inedible’?
Regards
Not inedible at all Uncle Stu!
Barbecued Stingray? Stingray Casserole? Warm Stingray Salad?
Stingray seems to be rather popular in fact…
To the stingray murderers, If you think you are avengeing Steve by doing this, you are really blind to his cause and he is surely turning in his grave as he was only out there to trying bring you idiots footage and understanding of them so that he is not the only human out there ” trying pointlessly as he must have felt at times” to save our beautiful creatures, use your brains thats what they are there for.
Hey Alex, If ya going to eat it it’s not a crime but just slaughtering is murder, so my comments are not aimed at you.
has anyone tried eating a sting ray?