The beloved cownose stingray succumbed Tuesday to a relentless onslaught of poorly supervised, juice-covered hands. He was widely respected for his stoic refusal to retreat to the center rocks.
Barnaby, a 12-year-old cownose stingray who anchored the shallow-water interactive exhibit at the National Aquarium, died Tuesday beneath a relentless barrage of sticky toddler fingers. Hatched in 2014, Barnaby spent his career gliding along the fiberglass perimeter of the touch pool, stoically enduring hundreds of thousands of unwashed, aggressive hands. He was widely respected among the benthic community for his endurance, most notably surviving the devastating Summer Camp Surge of 2019 without seeking refuge under the central waterfall filter.
He never once deployed his barb, even when that fourth-grader from Glen Burnie tried to palm him like a basketball.
He is survived by his mate, Clementine; a clutch of six pups; and a partially submerged informational placard advising guests to gently use two fingers. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that patrons wash their arms up to the elbow before approaching the water.