Back home in NY, another snowstorm was coming, so we received notice of an early dismissal. A perfect opportunity.
As soon as the last class ended, the Pine Adventure Team piled into the Jeep and headed to the other side of the island, a place called Stingray City. Time for a special class in marine biology!
It was quite an adventure just finding the place. Bumpy, narrow back roads. A few mishaps getting turned around. When we did find it, it didn't look like much. A few small buildings and a dock with several boats. We joined a few other adventurers in boarding the boats and rocketed offshore. Eventually, we came to a series of floating docks in the middle of a shallow reef, and the adventure began.
As you can see from the picture above, there were plenty of opportunities to hold friendly stingrays. Below is a video of what it was like first entering the area where they hang out, anxiously waiting to be fed their favorite snack: "calamari."
Like most perceptions about wild creatures, ours were totally wrong. I thought their stingers were possibly dangerous (didn't that Steve Irwin guy die from a sting?). Turns out, you'd literally have to run into a stinger from behind (with force) to get hurt. The stinger is more like a porcupine's quill than a scorpion's tail. That is, it can't move and actively sting you, nor would these gentle creatures want to try. They were very friendly, even allowing the handlers to hold them in a way where they curled up the edge of a "wing" for a "kiss."
The stingray's mouth is actually underneath and always sucking in water forcefully in order to vacuum up whatever potential food is around. Feeding them involves bringing a little squid near the mouth and releasing it at the last moment, so the stingray can hoover it up. The only possible danger is if you hold onto the squid too long and the mouth latches on to your skin, giving you a "hickey." None of us made that mistake, though. Most were too frightened, dropped the squid too soon and had to try again.
VIDEOS
Entering the feeding area
Action Boy holding a stingray
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