Things to Do

How to Touch & Feed Live Stingrays in Galveston, Texas

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Tony Maples Photography

 

The sheer exhilaration and excitement that comes with being near a stingray is tough to beat. But at Stingray Reef at the Kemah Boardwalk in Galveston, not only can you be near them, you can touch and feed live stingrays as well! Normally, this type of experience happens only on tropical or exotic vacations, but here in Texas, we have the chance to do so right in our own backyard.

How to Touch & Feed Lives Stingrays in Galveston

Photo: Wikimedia

Getting to see a stingray up close is customarily a deep-water enterprise. Stingrays consist of eight families that are distant relatives to sharks. These eight sub-families of the species consist of Sixgill, Deepwater Stingray, Stingarees, Round Rays, Whiptail Stingrays, River Stingrays, Butterfly Rays, and Eagle Rays. A staff biologist at Stingray Reef will be able to better explain the types that are at their facility as well as provide further detail on the variations between them.

How to Touch & Feed Lives Stingrays in Galveston

Photo: Wikimedia

At this one-of-a-kind experience, you and your family can visit the touch tanks, which offer hands-on involvement that’s hard to forget! The feed that you can provide for the stingrays are sardines (optional), and since their mouths are situated slightly underneath their bodies, the experience is quite unique. You can also take a guided tour with a staff biologist, including learning about the species located in their fifty thousand gallon tank. Also, visitors can take a tour through the rainforest exhibit which includes snakes, piranhas, tarantulas, glow-in-the-dark scorpions, an albino alligator, turtles and more. The admission fees for each may vary depending on times and visitor ages. Please check out their website for more information. And if you think you might want to see additional aquariums for free, you can go upstairs to the Aquarium Restaurant, but be forewarned that the food and service are so good, you may get lured into a meal while you’re at it!