Bodacious Boomer

Stingrays at the Aquarium restaurant

Alright, I know my skills as a videographer suck. In my defense, I took this video with my phone while trying to feed a stingray at the same time. Last Sunday Doug and I were working an event in Kemah, TX. (The event was unwonderful). However, I thought I’d remembered hearing about some type of animal encounter attraction offered at the Aquarium restaurant. Our booth was very close to the restaurant. It was getting to the end of our day and I was more than ready to pack up and go home. (We hadn’t made a dime in over an hour). I was getting antsy wanting to leave so I went over to check it out.

For $5.99 you got to see the stingrays and also were given food for them -4 tiny, 3″ fish. I followed the path which led me into a huge room with a large pool surrounded by a short wall. There must’ve been at least 40 stingrays of assorted sizes flying through the water. Since the wall was only 2″ tall, you could reach in, touch the water and the rays too. (Their barbs had been removed) .They were everywhere! Some of them were 5′ across. However most of the big ones didn’t come too close to the wall, probably just do to lack of manuvering room.

There was a sign explaining how to feed the stingrays. You had to hold the fish between your knuckles, put your hand about 10″ under water and wait for the ray to come to you. I did that and didn’t have long to wait. For them to get to the food their entire body will cover your hand entirely while they eat since their mouth is on the underside. It’s very disconcerting the first time you do it, but it was neat.  The rays would come up and beg for food. To get their mouth near the food, they have to lift the front of their body up and out of the water. This freaked out some of the visitors. When they start flapping their wings while partially out of the water you can see just how powerful they are.

Stingray begging for food.

I was all pumped after doing this and went to tell Doug. He was unimpressed. It seems the only animals that he’s really interested are dogs. Doug didn’t want to feed a white tiger a chunk of meat with a pair of tongs, or pet the black bear when I did that at other places around the country. Since Sunday, I’ve done some research and discovered that you can actually be in the water with rays at some tropical resorts. However, for those of those who are unable to get away this is a really unique experience. I recommend it. Just remember to bring a camera and get someone else to do the filming. Today’s trivia answer- erythrocytes.