Feeding Stingrays at Stingray City as it is called. Cayman Islands - Grand Cayman. I really do not condone feeding wild animals; I find the shark feeds and baiting the most objectionable. I prefer to see them, photograph them and leave them as I found them - WILD !!!!! Take only photo's - leave only bubbles. I no longer create images in these types of settings. This image was taken early on in my career, before I took a position on this matter. I no longer will patronize dive operations that do this kind of thing. I will still shoot people in settings with wild animals, but only if it is with the full cooperation of the animal and its willingness to approach and make contact. See my image posted here, Manatee with diver. I have been diving in areas of the world where the fish, eels, etc. have become so habituated to hand feeding they will swarm a diver entering the water. Biting your skin, fingers and tearing your hair out if you have no food. I have witnessed people losing fingers or receiving severe wounds from the razor sharp teeth of a hand fed wild eel. Make no mistake these are wild and dangerous animals. Their reactions more often than not are strictly instinctual and usually only defensive. A stingray killed a dive operator I knew in Fiji, the animals razor sharp barb at the base of the tail slashed a major artery in his leg. This man bled to death before he could exit the water. Feeding wild animals habituates them to people and civilization making them dependent on a handout, rather than to forage for themselves. It strongly reduces their odds of surviving in the wild. It also changes their place in the fabric of the food chain. Last but not least it makes them vulnerable to those who would be cruel, causing them harm or death. I have lost some wonderful wild friends this way, three very old groupers in particular, to someone with a spear gun and little knowledge of hunting who found them easy prey. The older groupers are not even good eating, when you kill the largest and oldest of a species you destroy the best breeding stock of that species. Some of these species do not start to breed till mid or later life. I know that many would do this with all the best intentions, but with little thought for the consequences that will be wrought by a few. Watch them, study them, come to understand them, photograph them, appreciate them, but please dont feed them. geoff