Many additional tourists took the safer option of swimming with rays. For a fee, this firm and others will put you at the center of swirling schools of sharks ready to eat fish out of your hands. Some guides even use heavy chain-mail protective suits, much like Knights of the Round Table used to wear. When it comes to rays, however, such protective measures aren't necessary. In the Bahamas and elsewhere, divers can find themselves amidst a flock of hungry, flapping rays, eager to snatch squid treats from onlookers.
Some guides even claim the rays look forward to human visitors and enjoy being petted and stroked.
Rays may actually enjoy human visitors. Sometimes, however, shark diving requires people to huddle behind bars. When the quarry is Great Whites, Tigers, and other potentially deadly sharks, divers often descend to the sharks' territory in protective cages. While divers feed the area's many sharks, onlookers can watch the action from inside the cage or, if they dare, from outside the bars. The cage can be surrounded by up to 30 sharks at a time.