Cayman Island Stingray Tourism Value

Million dollar stingrays

Stingray City, off the coast of Grand Cayman, is said to be the number one dive destination in the world. It's home to large numbers of very friendly southern stingrays that don’t seem to be deterred by humans entering the water. This site became established unintentionally many years ago when returning fishermen dumped their leftover bait which attracted the stingrays. After many years, these rays have established a resident population. Now close to a million people visit stingray city, it is estimated that each ray generates $500,000 per year. Because they are long-lived animals each ray can generate about $10-15 Million over their life span. While rays at stingray city were protected, outside this location they could still be fished. It also became evident that with such numbers of visitors strict management and monitoring needed to be put in place. More is explained in the video above. In 2013, the government finally protected all rays, and in 2015 sharks.

For more information read this research paper: Characterisation and monitoring of one of the world’s most valuable ecotourism animals, the southern stingray at Stingray City, Grand Cayman by Vaudo et al., 2017.