A normal day at Stingray City Sandbar? Or another sign that mismanagement is blighting Cayman’s most famous tourist attraction and harming the animals?
Images captured by award winning photographer Ellen Cuylaerts and her husband, filmmaker Michael Maes, show swimmers manhandling the animals including one apparently holding a squirming ray in a choke-hold. Another photograph shows the underside of a wounded ray, its flank covered in red scars.
The Department of Environment has acknowledged that it is facing increasing complaints about behavior at the Stingray City Sandbar since it stopped stationing an officer there on a daily basis because of budget constraints.
But officers point out that, while the pictures look extreme, handling rays has long been an accepted part of interaction at the sandbar and the injuries shown could equally have been sustained in the wild.
The photographers say they were shocked at the behavior of some operators and visitors on the sandbar and believe standards have slipped considerably in the past 12 months.
Their comments follow remarks about the sandbar by marine conservationist and artist Guy Harvey, who raised safety concerns over dangerously overloaded boats and reckless operators lifting rays out of the water.
A stingray was killed by a boat propeller at the site in January, sparking further concerns that overcrowding was endangering the animals.
“Personally, I think the situation has declined a lot in the last year. Many stingrays have injuries, something you rarely saw before,” said Mr. Maes, who believes party boats dropping sometimes drunk tourists in the water are part of the problem.
Both he and Ms. Cuylaerts say they are worried about the way the rays are being handled by some operators, sometimes for several minutes at a time.
Tim Austin, deputy director of the Department of Environment, said he was concerned about the increase in complaints at the sandbar.
He said the Wildlife Interaction Zone regulations did allow for handling of the rays by operators, but the injuries were more concerning. He added that the future management of the site as tourism increased was a long-term issue for the department.
He said the concept of feeding animals in the wild was “fraught with problems” and proper management of the interaction zone had been an issue since the inception of Stingray City.
He said the officer who previously oversaw the sandbar had been redeployed because of a lack of enforcement officers island-wide. Officers in the North Sound frequently checked in on the sandbar, he added.
“We have always had concerns because there are a lot of boats going there. It is not just an environmental issue,” Mr. Austin said.
He said the management of the boat traffic and the overloading of the boats fell under the remit of the Port Authority, though the Department of Environment does have concerns when boats cause injuries to the rays.
He pointed out that rays do bite each other and injuries were not necessarily caused by boats.
Experienced boat captains, who have been taking tourists to Stingray City for years, acknowledge there are occasional issues at the sandbar. But some say the situation is no worse than it ever was.
“To be honest, I have not seen much change in the last 10 years,” said a skipper for Moby Dick tours.
“There are sometimes a few problems with some of the newer operators but I genuinely think most of us really do respect the stingrays and spend a lot of time reminding visitors of how to behave around them,” he said.
He believes the incident in which a ray was killed by a propeller in January was likely a one-off and that, on the whole, operators obey the rules.
He said the majority of operators handled the stingrays in a professional manner, not lifting them out of the water or holding on to them when they tried to swim away.
“There is no person in the world that can hold on to a stingray if it doesn’t want to be handled and is trying to get away,” he added.
Mr. Maes and Ms. Cuylaerts believe the behavior of some operators towards the stingrays goes beyond peaceful interaction.
“I’ve seen operators handle the rays really rough. One guy walked around with the ray in a bench-wrench, looking for tourists wanting to play with the poor animal. The tourists declined so ultimately, after stressing the ray for some five minutes or more, he released it,” said Mr. Maes.
He believes the chance to interact with stingrays in the wild is a privilege that should not be taken lightly.
“The sandbar is a wonderful ‘event’ and should continue to be that,” Mr. Maes said. “It is a beautiful interaction between man and animal but man should always treat the animals with the utmost respect.”
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The DoE and the world eco freask won’t stop until they ban stingray city, ban the eating of turtle meat, make the entire islands so you can’t fish anywhere but 10 miles offshore, put a 15 year ban on lobster, impose a 50 year ban on grouper, and limit conchs to 1 per day only to be caught on a 10 foot diameter in a spot known where there aren’t any, force recycling of plastics, paper, glass, metal, organic waste, clothing and convert everyone to vegans on the island.
It’s hard to believe that the CIG can’t afford a single officer to monitor one of Cayman’s most prized locations when they waste millions every year to provide turtle meat to people. It doesn’t even have to be a police officer, it can be just a regular old Joe who’s familiar with the area I’m sure there’s plenty of people who would be willing to do it for a smaller salary than an officer.
I was in Barbados a few months ago and they have site similar to this where Turtles hang out. It would be a nice idea to make an attempt to start a Turtle City somewhere around Cayman, if they were born in captivity at the turtle farm they may already be used to human interaction and could possibly be encouraged to stay in the area with regular feedings or some type of floating net system like they use in fisheries. Just a thought..
Mr Ebanks, if anybody in Cayman, including yourself, continues with that line of thought then soon there will be nothing left of the island. It’s called preservation for a reason, not ruination! If the DoE and World Eco Freaks don’t continue their amazing work, there will be no island left for you to call yours I’m afraid. Be an active member of your own society and take care of what you have, it’s an amazing island which is being destroyed by ignorance.
I know this is probably not the right place but it does concern tourism I live on SMB and I just saw a guy with a fishing pool walk by. I see this at least one a week It is illegal and no one does anything about it. I walk the beach for 1 1/2 hours almost every day and there are dogs running wild with the owners looking on all over SMB every day. That is a 500 fine according to Cayman law. I looked it up. We want sleepover guests. Most stay on SMB. Dogs running around is not a plus. At 500 a pop it would more than pay for an enforcement officer. If we are serious about making the island more attractive to tourists then lets do it
Based upon some of the views discussed on the radio it might be good to have the DoE clarify the proper treatment of stingrays and the reasons for the limited season for conch and lobster as well as protecting the spawning sites.
Sounds like a lot of confusion in the public about these policies and even some conspiracy theories about a desire to destroy the Caymanian culture, which is not true.
I’ve been there and held a 4 foot stingray lightly on my chest with the help of the boat operators.WOW! What a wonderful experience. Hopefully we won’t let two people’s observance and opinion effect that experience for everyone else without some inteligence from a given period of time observing the situation.
There’s a strong attitude going around of it’s my island and I have a right to destroy it if I want to. Most people only think about themselves and what they have during their own lifetime.
A trip to the sandbar is supposedly entertaining and educating but some take it too far as a business tactic to get more business. I await the day when I hear that someone has been injured by a ray as they are very capable of causing great harm. Remember Steve Irwin?
And instead of the DOE and operators firing shots at each other, will one of you develop something to showcase the rays that will not harm them. A submersible ramp that allows the rays to swim up and through it, where vistors can see and touch them.
Seems like the rays are very tame so it would not be that hard to put a piece of squid in front of it and lead it up the ramp, everyone gets to touch and feel and the ray can swim away as it pleases.
That’s just a example as I am sure something else could work better than everyone just grabbing a ray any old how.
I mean cmon.
If some policy in this regard is not created and enforced soon, things will get very bad in the short term. If this high season is bringing tons of tourists, go figure how next one would be.
Nobody of a sound mind would be proposing a ban on the interaction. What should be proposed is a sustainable management of this, the most key spot on the tourism attractions of this island, that should be given protection not only as a natural treasure due to its uniqueness, but also as a national security core resource, given its overwhelming impact in this country economy.
People should, too, stop avoiding the poaching issue. No, please, don’t bring the Dolphin Discovery card as the usual sanctimonious and officious smoke curtain. We wish the only disappeared stingrays were those that showed up in Dolphin Discovery! Many times we come across of reports of strange lights in the sandbar at night, and the followup in this regard is zero.
I have been visiting the beautiful Cayman Islands for over 30 yrs. and have enjoyed going to the Sandbar to see the magnificent Sting Rays. I have observed tons of tourists going to see the Rays and wondered when things would get out of hand. Being a Florida resident, I know the importance of protecting sea life. Cayman should follow FLorida and start putting fines and jail time on those offenders. Also, we have wildlife volunteers overseeing tourist education and observation. Cruise lines should also have mandatory educational opportunities available before turning their passengers loose.
Sean, the Ray that killed Steve Irwin was an 8 feet wide Bull Ray which have barbs that can be like 9 or 10 inches long and are aggressive deadly creatures. The Rays in Cayman are Southern Sting Rays, which are much more docile creatures that grow to just about 5 feet wide at the most and have much smaller barbs on the end of their tails that are not deadly to humans. Let’s not get the two mixed up they are completely different animals
The ray’s in Cayman have become very accustomed to human interaction and actually swim right up to you like a kitten.
We are the danger to them, not them to us. Let’s not get this subject twisted.
Joe Hilgefort, what was so wonderful about it?
Since when has fishing from the beach been against the law Mr. Leibowitz? Please pick up any DOE marine parks flyer and see where it says line fishing from shore is permitted. This has been a pass time on island for many generations and I rarely see it anymore as it is. The discussion here is the Sandbar. Yes there are operators who manhandle the rays beyond what is reasonable but most of the operators that go to that attraction know what they are doing and will handle the rays properly and only have them for a short time. I believe there should be an officer stationed there too but I also believe that any operators that are going there should have some form of official training in how to interact with the rays. Just a suggestion.
Michael,
Ok I stand corrected. Not as dangerous but not completely safe as well as the spine does carry venom.
They may not be deadly as yes they are used to being handled but a barb in the hand or leg is not a trifle.
It would seem that trips to the sandbar are lucrative moneyspinners for the operators so why not impose a nominal fee for the DoE based on boat capacity that would cover the cost of a full time DoE employee and boat at the site. This would ensure boat safety compliance and restrict the manhandling of the rays.
Ms. Cuylaerts and Mr. Maes may be award winning film makers and photographers but they are clearly not biologists. Stingrays have neither the airway nor vasculature to be Choked. Injuries to the skin of the stingrays is many times more likely to be the result of their environment and the other marine life than the handling by operators or tourists. Ms Cuylaerts and Mr. Maes were shocked as we were by 3 people in full wet suits and Cameras with full strobe rigs in 3ft of water asking me to get that underwater shot handling the stingray. If they were so Shocked they could have asked me to release her.
Mr. Gobetz, it’s the Compass stating it is a choke hold, apparently we’re not the only ones to ask questions!
I told you at the Sandbar the ray seemed in distress, and asked you if you thought it like the way you hold it. You told me ‘they tolerate it’ you told me they had the brain of a peanut and that tourists like this. I did not see one of the tourists approaching you, they rather turned their backs. When you noticed I was taking picture to document this handling, you turned your back.
I’ve been at the Sandbar several times with various operators on this island and never ever do I ask people to handle the rays. The operators I go with have a respectful attitude towards the rays some of them are as compelled as I am by what’s going on at the sandbar these days. I care about the stingrays and I care about the perception of the islands and how we respect wildlife!
Whatever his spurious explanation about the inability to strangle a stingray, the fact is that this photograph will now go Global and only add to the perception that Cayman has no concerns about protecting it’s environment and ecosystem.
It’s not us stating ‘choked’ .
And I did not ask Mr.Gobetz to hold the stingray to take a picture as i cannot use these kind of pictures outside Cayman. I usually take totally different pictures. I care, i share. And mostly i show the beauty of the Cayman Islands as many are well aware of.
Mr. Ebanks Of course the island should be recycling glass, cans etc. They should also be growing their own produce. Handling of stings and turtles can result to serious health issues to these animals. I am against this practice.
I get you Sean, but to my knowledge no one has ever been injured by a stingray at the Sandbar. So we don’t need the negative publicity you’re spreading. Please let’s keep on topic, which is protecting the Rays..