I always want to do all of the “swim with marine creatures” activities that are available. Swimming with dolphins has long been on my wish list. Swimming with dolphins, turtles, or stingrays sound so alluring. Are they good for the creatures in question? Here is how to have ethical animal encounters in the Caribbean AND my handy-dandy guide to some of the most popular attractions.
I was so scared to travel and I never even considered traveling alone. My friends never had money or time. Frequently, both. If they did, they’d go with their significant other. I didn’t know that people traveled solo simply because they could. Nor did I realize how rewarding it would be. How do you alleviate the fear of traveling? How do you fight the foe called travel anxiety?
After I finished writing my post about diving with stingrays in Stingray City, Grand Cayman, I wondered if it was ethical. After all, you are feeding wild animals and it isn’t just you. It’s half the people you are diving with (one container of squid per two buddies) and all of the other people visiting Stingray City that day… and that year… and so forth.
Is it ethical to dive with stingrays at Stingray City?
After zoning out a little during the pre-dive instructions given at Stingray City in Grand Cayman Island, my dive buddy took the squid for feeding the rays, at my insistence. I was a little nervous and respectful of these majestic creatures, so I decided I wouldn’t touch them. You aren’t supposed to touch ocean creatures while diving anyway. It’s one of the first things you learn in scuba diving certification class and it’s drilled into your brain.
It was a beautiful summer morning in Key West, Florida and I had plans to go scuba diving. I love scuba diving and snorkeling in Key West. I’d been diving a lot during the week and always with the same company. Everything had always been perfect!
However, this particular dive was about to go wrong.
“August is hurricane season, isn’t it?” I asked myself, before booking the flights to Grand Cayman Island. “It’s okay! There won’t be a hurricane while we are there.”
The year was 2004. It was my first international trip in a dozen years and I was excited! Grand Cayman was such a wonderful destination that my parents had chosen to go twice and my dad is not keen on flying. They hadn’t taken me, being that I was in college (I was 17 when I started college). I wanted to go someday and that day had finally come!