Dive and water sports operators in Grand Cayman reported no negative feedback or tour cancellations to Stingray City as a result of a freak accident in Australia in which Steve Irwin, the country’s khaki-clad wildlife star and spokesman, died as the result of a stingray wound.
Stingray City in Grand Cayman’s North Sound is one of the destination’s most popular attractions for cruise and land-based visitors. Stingrays gathered in the area for years to feed on the guts of fish cleaned by fishermen, and in the late 1980s divers started feeding squid to the rays. Now, dozens of stingrays congregate each day looking for handouts from the hundreds of visitors who snorkel, dive or tour the area in glass-bottom boats.
Steve Broadbelt, chairman of the Watersports Committee of the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, pointed out that “not all stingrays are the same, and there are about 200 species of stingrays. Australia has some of the deadliest, but many of their less-harmful cousins live in the Caribbean and other parts of the world.”
Although Broadbelt also noted that Stingray City’s stingrays “have been handfed for years and are used to being around people,” he cited the need to regulate the procedures used at Stingray City, saying that the “manhandling of stingrays and lifting them from the water is both cruel and dangerous.” Tim Austin, assistant director with the Dept. of Environment in the Cayman Islands, confirmed that legislation to protect Stingray City should be finalized within months. The new regulations will restrict the number of visitors and regulate the feeding and handling of stingrays.
