It’s a whole new world out there in the ocean, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t make friends with the creatures that reside there. After looking at this young boy having special interaction with a sea creature, you’ll understand how beautiful their bond is.
Why these rays regularly visit this old fishing port.
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In the old fishing harbor of Vueltas located in La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, a bunch of stingrays, eagle rays, and butterfly rays regularly come to visit the port.
How this happened is because of the habits of the old fishermen’s habit, where they throw their bycatch into the port. That led to the ray species assembling in front of it. Even up to now, rays would still appear at the port, maybe asking for a snack to the people passing by.
Rays are usually friendly around humans.
A lot of the ray species are tolerant to human presence, which makes it possible to befriend them. Even the rays you see in zoos don’t mind their handlers playing with them in a gentle manner. They wouldn’t hurt a fly unless you provoke them.
This boy comes to this harbor every morning to meet an unusual friend.
That’s when this little boy named Joel took an interest in these aquatic animals. Seeing these interesting and friendly creatures, he learned to love them and even made some of them his friends.
He is unafraid of these giant rays and he will not hesitate to reach out his hand to pet their heads. The rays also seem to like it, especially when Joel also rewards them with a snack. This became a morning routine for Joel and the rays, especially for this specific manta ray that never fails to respond to his call at the harbor.
The wholesome scene of Joel and the manta ray was captured in a video.
In the video, you can see the boy Joel placing his hand on a manta ray that surfaced on the port’s stairs. After Joel finishes petting and feeding, the ray would dive back into the water.
However, Joel has a way of getting the ray back – by throwing a bit of food and lightly flapping the water.
The moment the ray came back to the surface, Joel calls one of his friends to pet it’s head. The friendly ray doesn’t mind Joel’s fried petting him at all.
To feed the hungry manta ray, Joel tries to lure it a bit closer to the stairs until a part of its head sticks out.
At that instance, Joel would feed the fish directly on its mouth before it goes back into the water again.
The amazing video showed the world that it’s possible to befriend rays.
The video was taken and posted in 2013 and now, it has accumulated over 58 million views on YouTube. People from all around the world were entranced by their special relationship and even admired how this beautiful thing became possible. One even insisted that there’s no reason to be afraid of these elegant creatures.
“That is one happy stingray, He gets a petting and food, why on earth is everyone screaming luckily no one got hurt, this fish ain’t thinking hurt people, it’s thinking meal ticket here,” the person wrote.
Check out the video of Joel and his stingray friend below!
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