HOW TO KISS A STINGRAY

There's a lot of examples of wild marine creatures and humans coming together in friendship. But one of the most pleasurable encounters for a regular tourist like me and you, is with Stingrays in the Cayman Islands.

Today, I'm joining a tour group heading out to meet with wild stingrays in a place called - what else - Stingray City. There are many tour operators that make daily trips to see the stingrays but I went with Moby Dick Tours because they seemed to provide more time and interaction with the stingrays...

As it turns out the water here at Stingray City is perfect for this kind of thing. It's over 80 degrees fahrenheit, very clear, and only about three feet deep. And as soon as you get in the water, the stingrays appear all around you like magic.

Stingrays are actually a relative of the Shark, but unlike sharks, show very little aggressive behavior...The eyes are very reptillian looking and those holes behind the eyes? They are called spiracles - they use these to take in water and then pump that water out through holes on their bottom when hunting

These Stingrays we find here at Stingray City are Southern Atlantic Stingrays. They are not dangerous to humans. Yes, they do have a barb on their tale that is venomous, but the stingrays only use them for defensive purposes. Here at Stingray City the stingrays are extra calm because they are used to human interaction.


This encounter between humans and stingrays actually started right here on the sandbar almost fifty years ago. Fisherman on their way back to port would stop to clean their catch here and discard buckets of fish guts over the side. Every since then, the relationship between human and stingray has only grown more affectionate.

Kissing a stingray turns out to be a lot easier than I thought. First you learn how to hold a stingray and be calm because they pick up on your energy and emotions. If you are calm, they are calm. They you just lift them up and give them a big kiss.

After spending an hour or so with the stingrays it's time to leave Stingray City and head back to port. The guys running Moby Dick tours have been doing this trip for over 10 years but say they still get a thrill seeing people interact with stingrays.

Special thanks to Jaqui

NOW SOME WIKIPEDIA FACTS ABOUT STINGRAYS

Stingrays are a group of rays, which are cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae (deep water stingray), Urolophidae (stingarees), Urotrygonidae (round rays), Dasyatidae (whiptail stingrays), Potamotrygonidae (river stingrays), Gymnuridae (butterfly rays), and Myliobatidae (eagle rays).[1][2]

Most stingrays have one or more barbed stingers (modified from dermal denticles) on the tail, which are used exclusively in self-defense. The stinger may reach a length of approximately 35 cm (14 in), and its underside has two grooves with venom glands.[3] The stinger is covered with a thin layer of skin, the integumentary sheath, in which the venom is concentrated.[4] A few members of the suborder, such as the manta rays and the porcupine ray, do not have stingers.[5]

Stingrays are common in coastal tropical and subtropical marine waters throughout the world, and also includes species found in warmer temperate oceans, such as Dasyatis thetidis, and those found in the deep ocean, such as Plesiobatis daviesi. The river stingrays, and a number of whiptail stingrays (such as the Niger stingray), are restricted to fresh water. Most myliobatoids are demersal (next to lowest zone), but some, such as the pelagic stingray and the eagle rays, are pelagic.[6]

While most stingrays are relatively widespread and not currently threatened, for several species (for example Taeniura meyeni, D. colarensis, D. garouaensis, and D. laosensis), the conservation status is more problematic, leading to them being listed as vulnerable or endangered by IUCN. The status of several other species are poorly known, leading to them being listed as Data Deficient.[7]