Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

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Stingray Cove Grand Opening May 4 - 5

Stingray Cove is now open at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, giving visitors the opportunity to reach into the water and touch stingrays.

Stingray Cove is open during all zoo hours, but touch times are as follows: 

• 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
• 1 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
• 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Varied shapes and colors of stingrays inhabit the approximately 1,000 gallon tank, some swimming placidly in the clear water as human hands dip in to gently touch them and feel their somewhat velvety surfaces. Others lie camouflaged in the sandy bottom, barely visible as if hiding from predators in the ocean.

A visit to Stingray Cove is free with paid admission or membership to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. It puts a new spotlight on the South Pacific Aquarium, which is paired with the North Pacific Aquarium to give guests the opportunity to see hundreds of cold and warm water fish. Point Defiance is the only place in the Northwest where a zoo and an aquarium are combined. 

There are five species of dinner-plate sized stingrays on exhibit, ranging from the highly colorful bluespotted maskray to the mottled yellow rays that are expert at camouflaging themselves in the sandy tank bottom.

In addition to the yellow stingrays and bluespotted maskray, visitors will see bluespotted ribbontail, Chilean and Atlantic stingrays (also known as sabina rays).  The zoo has more than 50 rays, and some three dozen or so will be in the touch tank at any given time.

Next to the stingray pool, electric-colored blue chromis,  neon yellow Oriental sweetlips, harlequin sweetlips, an emperor red snapper, clown fish, angel fish and dozens of others dart to and fro, an oceanic rainbow in motion.

And Stingray Cove differs from most exhibits in zoos, because here, visitors are encouraged to touch the animals.Interpreters will talk about the stingrays and give visitors guidance on how to gently touch them, sliding their hands along the pectoral fins, or sides, of the rays. The rays’ bodies are smooth; some might describe the sensation as feeling gel spread along a soft surface.

Aquarists keep the stingrays’ barbs clipped, so there’s no need for visitors to worry about being stung. The clipping doesn’t hurt them; it’s analogous to a human fingernail trim.

Stingray Cove is part of the zoo’s South Pacific Aquarium. The 300,000-gallon ecosystem boasts the Outer Reef, Blue Hole and Lagoon habitats. Together, they are home to 17 sharks and an assortment of Crevalle Jacks, soldierfish, Clark’s clownfish, pinecone fish, Dussumier, Naso and yellow tangs, a Napoleon humphead wrasse, moray eel and a host of other species.

Save money and purchase your tickets online.