I futzed around a bit with the overgrown plastic bag I'd bought in Key West for the videocamera and worked out all the bugs with the "Nick Cousteau" gear while snorkeling the local reef. So I was ready when we sailed the Five Knots out to more or less the middle of the big lagoon in the center of Grand Cayman, to a place called "Stingray City".
It seems that the stingrays like this spot or something and (people
have been feeding them long enough that) they've become quite tame.
They just sort of swim around you looking for handouts. We didn't
have any food that was to their liking (cheese whiz, while a favorite
of most fish, didn't seem to turn on the rays), but they didn't mind
too much.
You could touch them.
They feel smooth and leathery underneath, crusty on the top, vaguely
reptilian. Not like regular fish, but more like sharks. I don't
really know what type of rays these were (certainly not the huge manta
rays that get to be ten or more feet across), but they seemed
harmless, even a bit stupid. They never did figure out that we
weren't going to feed them.
After a bit, I got more daring and moved in closer.
It really was amazing how close they'd let you come.
Phil Greenspun has been to stingray city too. He's a much better writer than I am.