Blue Whales in Sri Lanka - Whale Watching

Blue Whales were by far the most commonly encountered species, with sightings on 14 out of 14 days (and an average of 4.5 sightings per day). This makes the south coast of Sri Lanka one of the very best places to see Blue Whales in the entire world. I believe that most of these Blue Whales are on migration, en-route from their NE monsoon feeding grounds off Trincomalee to their SW monsoon feeding grounds in the Arabian Sea . However, most of the Blue Whales seen during our trips were not obviously travelling westward. Rather, they were repeatedly diving in localized areas, presumably feeding. So perhaps they are on passage, but having found food off the south coast are quite happy to loiter as long as the food remains. Clearly there is still a lot to be learnt about these whales. Sperm Whales were also present, with pods being seen on five occasions. While most Blue Whales were seen over the continental shelf, Sperm Whales tended to occur a bit further offshore, in the shipping lanes. And this gives a clue as to why there are so many whales here. A glance at any chart of the Indian Ocean shows that Dondra Head is the southern-most point not only of Sri Lanka , but also of the entire Indian subcontinent. Any ship wanting to pass between east and west has to pass by Dondra. And so too does any cetacean. Furthermore, off Dondra the continental slope comes to within less than 3 nautical miles of the coast. With the seasonally changing monsoon currents producing seasonally changing blooms of plankton; with the land masses of India and Sri Lanka acting like an inverted funnel to channel cetacean movements; and with deep water so close to shore, it is perhaps not surprising that the southern tip of Sri Lanka is such a cetacean hotspot. Other cetacean species seen were: Bryde's Whale, Dwarf Sperm Whale, unidentified Beaked Whale, Spinner Dolphin, Striped Dolphin and Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin. Dr. Charles Anderson is a professional marine biologist who has lived and worked in the Maldives since 1983. His research on whales there led him to believe that Blue Whales should be present off the south coast of Sri Lanka in April, a hypothesis which he confirmed with visits in April 2007 and 2008. He can be contacted on: anderson@dhivehinet.net.mv or charles.anderson11@btinternet.com Extracted from - Sri Lanka wildlife news letter - 2nd July 2008