News Headline | Stingray City Sandbar Temporarily Closed

Edited By : scubachar Thu, 29 Mar 2007 08:29:23 -0400

From the Cayman Compass, Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Stingray City Sandbar Closed Temporarily

All watercraft operating in the Sandbar area of the North Sound were ordered out Wednesday by the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service Marine Unit.

The Sandbar remained closed yesterday and an assessment of the area is to be made early this morning to determine if it is safe for visitors and residents to return.

Sandbar

The Sandbar was closed to boaters yesterday morning.

The RCIPS instructions came after two cruise ship passengers were stung by jellyfish Wednesday morning and another tourist was injured by a stingray.

Police said the barb of the ray broke off in the tourist?s arm. He was transported to shore for medical treatment shortly afterward. The two cruise ship passengers who were stung by the jellyfish were also hospitalised after being taken to shore.

The North Sound has generally seen several days of rough seas and bad weather and it was thought that the conditions may have played a role in the incidents.

?It does happen, certain times of year different (jellyfish) do come in here,? said Department of Environment marine supervisor Mark Orr.

Some tour boat operators were upset about the police department?s decision to close the Sand Bar and said they thought RCIPS had overreacted.

?Boats were operating in other parts of the North Sound,? said Captain Bryan Ebanks of Captain Bryan?s Sail and Snorkel. ?Do they think the jellyfish are all going to say ?hey, this is the Sand Bar, we can?t go beyond here.?

Mr. Ebanks described the jellyfish that stung the tourists as miniscule thimble jellyfish. He said sometimes conditions do warrant a ban on travel in the North Sound, but he said Wednesday wasn?t one of them.

Under the Port Authority Law (1999), RCIPS is allowed to issue orders like this if an area is declared to be hazardous.

Marine Unit officers will patrol the Sand Bar to make sure boaters follow their instructions.

Last year popular television show host and wildlife expert Steve Irwin was killed when a stingray barb pierced his chest. The incident sparked some concern locally about the animals, but at the time tourism leaders said they expected the incident to have minimal impact.

??being used to both divers and snorkellers, the stingrays at Stingray City and Sandbar will closely interact with all visitors in a positive manner,? Cayman Islands Tourism Association President Steven Broadbelt said in a statement at that time. (Caymanian Compass, 5 September, 2006)

Mr. Broadbelt also noted that not all stingrays are the same, and there are about 200 species of stingrays.

?Australia is home to some of the deadliest creatures on the planet, many of their less harmful cousins of similar common names live in the Caribbean and other parts of the world, such as our Southern Stingrays,? he said.

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 2:24 pm Post subject:

I believe SRC trips began late yesterday or this morning. We are looking to go maybe on Sunday or Monday, but that may change. The girls and I will be staying on the boat if we do go.

:palm:

As a follow up to Char's & Kim's posts, the Caymanian Compass reported on Thursday, 3/29/07 the re-opening of the SRC Sandbar. The article is quoted below:

Quote:

Police defend Sandbar closure

While apologising to tour boat operators who lost business Wednesday, the supervisor of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Marine Unit said closing the Sandbar to water craft was the right thing to do.

Tour boats idled on Wednesday at the Safe Haven dock.

?(The decision) wasn?t made lightly,? said RCIPS Superintendent Mike Needham. ?We were very sorry we had to do this, but on the evidence (Wednesday) morning, we decided that it wasn?t safe.?

As of Thursday morning, the Sandbar was back open to boat traffic but operators were still asked to be cautious as conditions in the North Sound remained choppy.

Mr. Needham said several factors played into the decision to close off the Sandbar on Wednesday.

?The weather and wind conditions were extremely hazardous,? he said. ?The officers actually witnessed two boats nearly collide with each other.?

In addition, two cruise ship passengers suffered stings from tiny jellyfish known as sea thimbles. A third tourist was injured when a stingray barb pierced the skin of his arm, a rare event in Grand Cayman where hundreds of tourists routinely swim along with rays in Stingray city.

?The stingray was thrown onto the tourist (by) the wave action,? Superintendent Needham said. ?The animal was likely scared. I don?t think this was a deliberate action by the stingray.?

All three people were treated for minor injuries and released from hospitals Wednesday.

More than a dozen tour boat operators blasted the decision by the RCIPS to close the Sandbar as uninformed or an overreaction.

?I don?t call it any sense at all,? said Captain Glen Gleason Ebanks, whose craft The Seafire was docked at Safe Haven Wednesday afternoon instead of taking out passengers. ?I was at the Sandbar (Wednesday) morning and there were no jellyfish there.?

Mr. Ebanks also questioned whether the decision by the RCIPS indicates a sign of things to come.

?Next couple of weeks you?re going to see Portuguese Man O? War (in the North Sound)?.they going to close the Sandbar then too??

Mr. Needham insisted it wasn?t solely the injuries to tourists, but a combination of high winds, choppy waves, and the jellyfish and stingray incidents. He also noted closing the Sandbar was a rare, perhaps even a unique event.

?I cannot remember that we?ve had to do this before, but I may be corrected on that,? he said.

The Port Authority Law (1999) gives RCIPS the ability to order boats out of an area if it feels conditions are too hazardous.

But several boat operators said Marine Unit officers should have checked with them simply before making the decision to close down the Sandbar.

?There were more sea thimbles at the Coral Gardens than there were at the Sandbar,? said Doye Kelly of Kelly?s Watersports. ?The Sandbar conditions were great. I had no complaints.?

?They?re really overreacting,? said boat operator Elden Ebanks.

Some operators also said they feared police were trying to keep the numbers down at the Sandbar because they feel too many craft are already in that area.

?It?s for others to decide whether the Sandbar is getting too crowded,? said Mr. Needham. ?If tourists lose their lives as a result of sea conditions that aren?t suitable to go out in then that would cause more problems than just a loss of income.?

Leader of Opposition McKeeva Bush met with the tour operators Wednesday afternoon to hear their concerns about the situation.

He advised them to talk with tourism officials and members of the Legislative Assembly, who are drawing up marine regulations for Stingray City and the Sandbar.

?I realise there needs to be regulations put in place,? said Mr. Bush. ?But not to the extent that it will destroy people?s business.?

Minister of Tourism Charles Clifford told the Caymanian Compass that he would unveil a draft of the proposed regulations at a press briefing today.

The pool is open!

jpep

Native Joined: 18 Feb 2005 Posts: 1256 Location: Illinois

Caymantwins

I'll be interested in how the girls do on the stingray trip--if you go. I'm wondering if our grandkids would like it. They will be 5 and 7 but are scardey cats so I'm sure they wouldn't go in the water--their mother is one too and so am I.

When we used to go on the Northsound boat trips all we did was snorkeling around a little and have lunch on the beach--stingray city wasn't there yet.

Hope you're having a great time

Shelly :-)

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