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Stingray City is a series of shallow
Stingray City is in the shallow waters off the northwest corner of Grand Cayman's North Sound. It is just inside a natural channel that passes through the 
Official websiteStingray City Photo Gallery
{{Recreational dive sites, reesit Tourism in the Cayman Islands Underwater diving sites in the Caribbean
Stingray City is a series of shallow sandbar
In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body o ...
s found in the North Sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
of Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands and the location of the territory's capital, George Town. In relation to the other two Cayman Islands, it is approximately 75 miles (121 km) southwest of Little Cayman and 90 miles ( ...
, Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...
. It is a tourist attraction, where southern stingray
The southern stingray (''Hypanus americanus'') is a whiptail stingray found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Western Atlantic Ocean from New Jersey to southern Brazil. It has a flat, diamond-shaped disc, with a mud brown, olive, and gr ...
s are found in abundance and visitors can pet and interact with the animals.
There are two sandbars, one which is in the shallows and the other one which is deeper and where it is possible to dive with stingrays.
Location
Stingray City is in the shallow waters off the northwest corner of Grand Cayman's North Sound. It is just inside a natural channel that passes through the barrier reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
Co ...
and consists of a string of sandbars crossing the North Sound from Morgan Harbour to Rum Point.
History
It may be that stingrays began gathering in the area decades ago when fisherman returning from an excursion, navigated behind a reef into the sound, and cleaned their fish in the calm water of the shallows and sandbar area. The fish guts and squid were thrown overboard and the stingrays eventually congregated to feast there. Soon the stingrays associated the sound of a boat engine with food. As this practice turned into a tradition, divers realized that the stingrays could be fed by hand. Today, tour and excursion boats, along with private watercraft, gather at Stingray City in large numbers. There is a wide variety of companies that offer Stingray City excursions, which all have their own unique features. Passengers disembark and enter the chest-high water to interact with the stingrays. The boats' proprietors bring along with them pails of chunked-up squid meat, which they dispense by hand to the animals, thus attracting dozens of the creatures to the feeding spot. Visitors can visit Stingray City and pet stingrays, while standing in only 3 feet of water. There are however growing concerns about alterations in behaviour, feeding patterns and general ecology of these rays, when compared to rays not receiving supplemental nutrition.References
External links
Official website
{{Recreational dive sites, reesit Tourism in the Cayman Islands Underwater diving sites in the Caribbean