Monday, January 9, 2012

Ballet with Stingrays

By: David Doubilet
***Rating
This article is about the humble but dangerous stingray off the cost of the Cayman Islands.

His article is about tourists that go to the Cayman Islands and are able to go to scuba diving with stingrays. They feed the rays by hand and some people get affectionate with the rays by hugging them. The rays are bottom feeders so naturally they feed on crustaceans, mollusks, worms, and occasionally even flatfish. The scuba divers feed them ballyhoo fish though. Even though the stingrays in this area only grow to about five feet, with all the hand feeding, the fish could grow to record breaking sizes.

I have learned that even though the people in this story hand feed the stingrays, the fish is still very dangerous and this is the animal that killed the crocodile hunter. The only reason that these people are able to do this is because they are hand fed by people every day. According to this article, if they are not fed daily, they get rowdy and dangerous. If we keep feeding these animals, they will rely on humans for food and maybe even seeing people as food.
National Geographic, VOL 175, NO1, January 1989,pg 84, David Doubilet
Tyler Franklin

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