July 25, 2012
Stingrays make me nervous and sharks make me nervous. The idea of them together wasn’t filling me with joyful anticipation, but our friend Larry had done this and was saying how great it was so I knew I had to give it a try. Larry was insisting we needed to bring fresh fish to attract the rays, who will then practically climb on you while you feed them. I wasn’t so sure I wanted stingrays “climbing on me,” and thought maybe it would be better to just watch other people feed them but we arrived first, and Rich went in. I tentatively followed.
We had our fresh tuna chunks and Rich managed to attract a ray by waving some in the water. It came near but not close enough to take it from his hand. He dropped a piece of fish for it, then another came by, but again, not too close. I was watching and thinking it was going pretty well, and I wondered if we’d attract any more. I turned to look around and said something along the lines of, “Holy Crap!!!!”
A few feet away was a large formation of rays coming fast. This mass had about 15 rays, swimming about 3 high and 5 wide, looking like a battle star squadron from Star Wars. Suddenly, we were surrounded. It was nervous fun feeding them tuna by hand as they did indeed climb on us. When it got to be a bit much for me, I jumped in the dinghy. Rich soon followed while we watched and laughed and took video and waited for our friends to arrive.
Rich was soon back in the water filming them (see our next post), but I opted to stay in the dinghy. Some small sharks swam on the outskirts but never came too near. It seems this is the stingrays’ thing and the sharks respect that. In all, I did very much enjoy the stingray encounter and have developed a soft spot for them. I have not, however, developed a soft spot for the sharks but if we ever get back to Moorea, I will definitely do this again! -Cyndi
