a compilation of articles on whale and seabird watching (mainly...
TRANSCRIPT
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A Compilation of Articles on Whale and Seabird Watching
(mainly off Sri Lanka)
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne
This collection of 36 articles include some of the articles which helped
establish Sri Lanka as one of the world’s top whale watching sites in the
world. The compilation includes articles which were;
The first to publicise Sri Lanka as a top destination for Blue Whales
and publicize a high encounter rate. The first publicity that Sri Lanka
is the best chance of seeing Sperm and Blue Whales on the same
sailing.
Publicize Sri Lanka as the best chance for a Sperm Whale Super-pods
on a commercial whale watch.
Established Kalpitiya as a site for whale watching and pelagic
seabirds and explained that that this corroborated with new oil and gas
exploration maps showing the continental shelf closer to shore than
previously shown on charts.
Publicized the extension of the whale watching season in
Trincomalee.
Exploring the question on where the greatest gatherings of great
whales occur.
Version: Augsut 2016
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Contents 1.0 THE LIST ..................................................................................................................... 4
2.0 THE ARTICLES (The Full Text) ............................................................................... 10
36. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2016). Shearwaters in the untamed wilderness ............. 10
35. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2015).See the seabirds. .................................................. 11
34. de Silva Wijeyeratne, Gehan. (2015). Where are the Greatest Great Whale
Gatherings? ................................................................................................................... 16
33. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Watching Seabirds in Kalpitiya ......................... 36
32. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Sri Lanka’s Potential for Marine Mammal
Tourism ......................................................................................................................... 38
31. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Is Sri Lanka still best for Blue? ......................... 40
30. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Orcas in Sri Lanka ............................................. 44
29. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2014). Gentle Giants of the deep................................... 45
28. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2015). Blue Whales in Mirissa ...................................... 49
27. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2013). Courting Blue Whales and Sperm Whale Super-
pods. .............................................................................................................................. 51
26. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2013). Trinco’s Blue Whales. ....................................... 54
25. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2013). Whales of Sri Lanka. ......................................... 56
24. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2013). Fluke encounter. ................................................. 58
23. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2012). Sri Lanka Best Chance for Sperm Whale Super-
pods ............................................................................................................................... 60
22. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2012). June 2012. A Guide to Sperm Whale Behaviour
and Sri Lanka’s Super Pods .......................................................................................... 65
21. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2012). Do elephants and whales predict tsunamis? ...... 72
20. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2012). Pelagic Seabirds of Kalpitiya. Tales from the
field. .............................................................................................................................. 76
19. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). An Englishwoman in Blue Whale Country. ...... 81
18. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). The Sperm Whales of Kalpitiya. Tales from the
Field. ............................................................................................................................. 85
17. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). Longest and Best for Blue. ................................ 87
16. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). How Sri Lanka was positioned as being Best for
Blue Whales .................................................................................................................. 94
15. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). Blue Whale off Mirissa ...................................... 98
14. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). Mirissa or Trinco: Which will be the hot spot for
Blue Whales? .............................................................................................................. 100
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13. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). It’s Whale Time. .............................................. 103
12. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Whale Watching Hotspots: Mirissa, Kalpitiya
Peninsula and Trincomalee. ........................................................................................ 107
11. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Deep Blue. July - August 2010. ....................... 111
10. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Why Kalpitiya is Sri Lanka's top spot for pelagic
seabirds. ...................................................................................................................... 113
9. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Off to see seabirds. Why the Kalpitiya Peninsula is
the best site in Sri Lanka for pelagic seabirds............................................................. 119
8. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Kalpitiya joins Sri Lanka's whale spots. ............ 127
7. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Best for Blue ...................................................... 136
6. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2009). Best for Blue - One Year On. ............................ 141
5. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2009). The Pink Dolphins of Kalpitiya. ........................ 146
4. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2009). Getting close to whales. ..................................... 151
3. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (Nov – Dec 2008). Best of Blue. .................................... 153
2. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (July-August 2008). Best of Blue. .................................. 156
1. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2008). Best for Blue. Is Sri Lanka the world's top spot for
seeing blue and sperm whales? ................................................................................... 157
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1.0 THE LIST
36. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2016). Shearwaters in the untamed wilderness. February
2016. Living. Pages 48-49. Volume 11, Issue 4. ISSN 1800-0746.
Encountering flesh-footed Shearwaters and Blue Whales off Mirrisa in August.
35. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015).See the sea birds. Sunday Times: Sri Lanka. Sunday
Times Plus. Page 6. Sunday 27 December 2015.
A summary of the sea birds recorded in Sri Lanka and where to see them.
34. de Silva Wijeyeratne, Gehan. (2015). Where are the Greatest Great Whale
Gatherings? Wall Street International Online Magazine. November 2015. Published in 4
parts between 2nd November and 15th November 2015.
A review of published records, other data and the author’s own personal observations to
answer the question on where the greatest great whale gatherings occur.
33. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Watching Seabirds in Kalpitiya. Ahasa: in-flight
magazine of Mihin Lanka. Issue 18. October 2015. Pages 36-39.
Counting the annual mass migration of Bridled Terns from the Kalpitiya Peninsular.
32. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Sri Lanka’s Potential for Marine Mammal
Tourism. Life Times: Sri Lanka. August 2015. Pages 47-49.
An overview of Sri Lanka’s marine mammal tourism product and the importance of the
‘Three Es’ in developing marine tourism.
31. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Is Sri Lanka still best for Blue. Sunday Times: Sri
Lanka. Sunday Times Plus. Page 6. Sunday 16 August 2015.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/150816/plus/is-sri-lanka-still-best-for-blue-whales-
160601.html
Encounter rates based on nearly a thousand whale watching trips from Mirissa are
analyzed and discussed.
30. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2015). Orcas in Sri Lanka. Quarterly Bewsletter June
2015. Friends of Sri Lanka Association.
An overview of the Orca Project Sri Lanka with results to date.
29. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2014). Gentle Giants of the deep. Wall Street
International. On-line magazine. Published 2 February 2014.
http://wsimag.com/science-and-technology/12785-gentle-giants-of-the-deep
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Discusses the issue of ethical whale watching and the risk to Blue Whales which feed on
the shipping lanes off the south of Sri Lanka.
28. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2015). Blue Whales in Mirissa. Friends of Sri Lanka
Association Newsletter. UK. Winter 2014/15. Issued in January 2015.
Discusses the issue of Blue Whales being at risk in the shipping lanes off southern Sri
Lanka and discusses if this is due to whale watching activity or natural patterns.
27. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2013). Courting Blue Whales and Sperm Whale Super-
pods. Wildlife Worldwide. eJournal. 24 September 2013.
Encounters with courting Blue Whales and super-pods of Sperm Whales on a trip in April
2012 where the author visited all three of Sri Lanka’s whale watching triangle sites of
Mirissa, Kalpitiya and Trincomalee.
26. de Silva Wijeyeratne . G. (2013). Trinco’s Blue Whales. May June 2013.
Living. Pages 98 - 99. Volume 8, Issue 4. ISSN 1800-0746.
Watching Blue Whales off Trincomalee in September and an explanation of why the
Northern Indian Ocean Blue Whales can be seen year-round off Sri Lankan waters.
25. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2013). Whales of Sri Lanka. Wildlife Worldwide. Issue 1,
2013. Pages 2-3.
An account of encounters with courting Blue Whales, breaching Sperm Whales in
Trincomalee and super-pods of Sperm Whales in Kalpitiya and Leopards in Yala on field
trips in April 2013.
24. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2013). Fluke encounter. BBC Wildlife Magazine, January
2013. Volume 31, Number 1. Page122. ISSN 9770265365169.
The first documented sighting of Blue Whale courtship off Southern Sri Lanka involving
rarely observed behaviors including flank formation, pectoral rolls and trumpeting
(bubbling).
23. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2012). Sri Lanka Best Chance for Sperm Whale Super-
pods. Sunday Times: Sri Lanka. Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 05 August 2012. Features.
Page 6.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120805/plus/sri-lanka-best-chance-for-sperm-whale-super-
pods-7800.html
A claim that Sri Lanka is the best chance for seeing a super-pod of Sperm Whales on a
commercial whale watch. It also clarifies confusion in the literature which suggests that
it is not unusual to see thousands of Sperm Whales together when in fact seeing a pod of
just 40 is very special.
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22. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2012). June 2012. A Guide to Sperm Whale Behaviour
and Sri Lanka’s Super Pods. Hi Magazine. Series 10, Volume 1. Pages 167 – 170.
A guide to over fifteen types of surface behavior and an examination of the Sperm Whale
super pods seen off Sri Lanka.
21. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2012). Do elephants and whales predict tsunamis? The
Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 06 May 2012. Features. Page 3.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120506/Plus/plus_06.html
An investigation into claims that whales responded to seismic activity before a Tsunami
alert on 11th April 2012.
20. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2012). Pelagic Seabirds of Kalpitiya. Tales from the
field. Hi Magazine. April 2012. Series 9, Volume 6. Pages 178-180.
Watching rare pelagic seabirds off the Kalpitiya Peninsula.
19. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). An Englishwoman in Blue Whale Country. The
Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 16 October 2011. Features. Page 8.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/111016/Plus/plus_16.html
The role of an Englishwoman in launching whale watching in Sri Lanka.
18. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). The Sperm Whales of Kalpitiya. Tales from the
Field. Hi Magazine. October 2011. Series 9, Volume 3. Pages 172-177.
Encounters with Sperm Whales off the Kalpitiya Peninsula.
17. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). Longest and Best for Blue. The Sunday Times
Plus. Sunday 04 September 2011. Features. Page 6.
http://sundaytimes.lk/110904/Plus/plus_08.html
The first article using a compilation of new data to make the case that resident Blue
Whales off Trincomalee extend Sri Lanka’s commercial Blue Whale watching season
from December to August.
16. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). How Sri Lanka was positioned as being Best for
Blue Whales. Daily Mirror. Colombo. 28 July 2011. Page C8.
http://print.dailymirror.lk/life/132-life/51299.html
The summary of the story behind Sri Lanka’s rise to eminence as the top spot for Blue
Whales.
15. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). Blue Whale off Mirissa. July - August 2011.
Living. Pages 42-43. Volume 6, Issue 6. ISSN 1800-0746.
Watching Blues Whales off Mirissa.
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14. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). Mirissa or Trinco: Which will be the hot spot for
Blue Whales? The Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 02 January 2011. Features. Page 7.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110102/Plus/plus_12.html
This article discusses whether Mirissa will remain the top spot or be overtaken by
Trincomalee for Blue Whales.
13. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). It’s Whale Time. [The Migration and feeding
strategies of Blue Blue Whales around Sri Lanka]. The Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 26
December 2010. Features. Pages 3-4.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/101226/Plus/plus_06.html
The article centered around a remarkable observation of 25 Blue Whales migrating
together discusses alternate views on the presence of Blue Whales around Sri Lanka.
12. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Whale Watching Hotspots: Mirissa, Kalpitiya
Peninsula and Trincomalee. Ahasa, the in-flight magazine of Mihin Air. August 2010.
Page 26-29.
A discussion on the locations and seasons for whale watching in Sri Lanka.
11. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Deep Blue. July - August 2010. Pages 34-35.
Volume 5, Issue 6. ISSN 1800-0746.
Exploring the seas off Kalpitiya in search of whales. Reflections on the first focussed
effort to develop Kalpitiya for whale watching.
10. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Why Kalpitiya is Sri Lanka's top spot for pelagic
seabirds. Hi Magazine. Series 8, Volume 1. Pages 228-231.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/birds/asian-pelagics.html
An explanation as to why Kalpitiya is so good for pelagic seabirds and a clarification
that the depths off the Kalpitiya Peninsula were not mapped until October 2009.
9. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Off to see seabirds. The Sunday Times Plus. Sunday
2 May 2010. Features. Page 6.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100502/Plus/plus_15.html
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/birds/asian-pelagics.html
Explains why the Kalpitiya Peninsula is the best site in Sri Lanka for pelagic seabirds.
He also introduces the concept of the Wildlife Diagonal.
8. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Kalpitiya joins Sri Lanka's whale spots. The
Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 07 March 2010. Features. Page 4.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/whales/sri-lanka-sperm-whale.html
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Kalpitiya Peninsula is unveiled as the last of three whale watching hot spots in Sri Lanka.
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne uses oil exploration and sea bed claim data combined with
field work to explain the story.
7. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Best for Blue. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau,
Colombo. e Edition. 8 pages. A4.
The 8 page A4 brochure outlines briefly the discovery that Sri Lanka is the best place in
the world for seeing the Blue Whale.
6. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2009). Best for Blue - One Year On. Serendib, the in-flight
magazine of Sri Lankan. November - December 2009. Pages 50-53.
A look back after the first full season of whale watching in Sri Lanka.
5. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2009). The Pink Dolphins of Kalpitiya. Serendib, the in-
flight magazine of Sri Lankan. July - August 2009. Pages 42-43.
The first popular article to publicise the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins in the
Kalpitiya Lagoon.
4. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2009). Getting close to whales. Living. May - June 2009.
Pages 32-33. Volume 4, Issue 5. ISSN 1800-0746.
An encounter with Sperm Whales with Germaine Greer.
3. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2008). Best of Blue. Serendib, the in-flight magazine of Sri
Lankan. November - December 2008. Pages 42-46.
The story behind the discovery that Sri Lanka is the best place in the world for seeing
Blue and Sperm Whales together.
2. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2008). Best of Blue. Serendib, the in-flight magazine of Sri
Lankan. July - August 2008. Page 24.
A short article on the discovery that Sri Lanka is the best place in the world for seeing
together Blue Whales and Sperm Whales.
1. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2008). Best for Blue. Is Sri Lanka the world's top spot for
seeing blue and sperm whales? May 2008. Open Release Article carried in several
newspapers and magazines in Sri Lanka including the Daily Mirror, Island and the Hi
Magazine.
It was this article which first published in a special issue of the Sri Lanka Wildlife
eNewsletter which made the case that Sri Lanka is the best place in the world for seeing
Blue Whales.
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2.0 THE ARTICLES (The Full Text)
36. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2016). Shearwaters in the untamed wilderness. February 2016. Living. Pages 48-49. Volume 11, Issue 4. ISSN 1800-
0746.
Encountering flesh-footed Shearwaters and Blue Whales off Mirrisa in August.
I had never seen Blue Whales off Mirissa in August or September. The primary reason
being that the seas are rough on the west and south-western coasts and no whale watching
boats put out in the early years of whale watching. In fact when whale watching began,
until the publicity blitz in May 2008, it was difficult to even find a boat willing to take
tourists out even during the in-season months. In March 2015, I had met Asanga Coorey
at the Whale Fest in Brighton and was intrigued to hear that now in August and
September, the whale watching boats were going out and seeing Blue Whales.
On the 7th September 2015, I arrived in Mirissa with Ajith and Dimitri Ratnayaka and
Ashan Seneviratne from Little Adventures. I had two objectives. One was to have a
training workshop with the Mirissa Water Sports crew about our joint plans to manage a
Blue Whale Photo Identification project lead administered by Georgina Gemmell. The
second was for me to have firsthand experience of sea conditions and to see what animals
were out there. On the way out, there was little wind and hence no 'white caps'. But the
ride was bumpy. The boat heaved in and out of deep waves that rolled in and dissipated
their energy in a dash to the coast. The crew assured me that once we had gone far out
enough we would no longer be riding against the current.
Two dark shapes skimmed over the waves. I was more excited at seeing them than seeing
a whale. These were Flesh-footed Shearwaters. These are some of the most amazing
animals in the sea, highly evolved to a marine existence. They belong to a family of birds
known as the 'tube-noses' because of two tube-shaped nostrils over their upper beak
which are used to excrete salt which they ingest . Except when they are breeding often on
isolated islands, shearwaters spend all of their life out at sea. They sleep and rest on the
water. Many of the shearwaters take part in spectacular long distance migrations. Just a
few days earlier, I had been watching the long studied mass migration of Bridled Terns
from the pool-side of Palagama Beach in the Kalpitiya Peninsula with Ajith and others. I
had hoped to see a shearwater or a skua. But it was not to be. I knew from many whale
watching trips in March and April from both Mirissa and Kalpitiya that the shearwaters
arrive just before the onset of South-west Monsoon, gliding and skimming the waves
ahead of the billowing rain and thunderstorms. But I had often wondered about going out
to sea in August and September to see the shearwaters seen migrating with the Bridled
Terns past past Sri Lanka's west coast.
Perhaps the two shearwaters in view were a part of that movement. There was no clearly
discernible line of travel as they skimmed around, with barely a flutter of the wings.
Later, we spotted 4 dark shapes in the water and two took wing, more Flesh-footed
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Shearwaters. Having the boat to ourselves, we allowed it to drift closer taking care not to
flush the two resting birds.
Shearwaters have a huge appeal to birders. They epitomise the untamed wilderness of the
oceans, the spirit of the open spaces, vast distances and epic journeys, the scale of which
we cannot fully grasp. Itt is only a matter of time before researchers use radio tags on the
Bridled Terns and Shearwaters passing by Sri Lanka to understand better what happens
across a planetary scale. We are still learning the basics on even relatively visible animals
like birds. When I photographed Brown and Lesser Noddies at close range in the
Kalpitiya Peninsula in March and April 2010, I was then one of the few people who had
taken good photographs of these birds which were believed to be highly scarce migrants
to Sri Lanka. In September 2014, birdwatchers found them breeding on the 3rd island in
the chain of Islands forming Adam's Bridge. A week earlier during a visit organised by
the Palmyrah House in Mannar with permission from the Navy, I counted no less than 40
Brown Noddies in the field of view.
Oh! I have got carried away with the seabirds. On that sailing in Mirissa, we had several
sightings of what we think was a Blue Whale on the move. There were possibly 2 or 3
Blue Whales that were seen by the boats out that day. A Bryde's Whale surfaced a few
times but never stayed long enough or close enough for good photography. A pod of 50
plus Spinner Dolphins kept us entertained as they cruised around fishing boats. A few
hurled themselves into the air spinning wildly and landing with a crash. Blue Whales, a
Bryde's Whale and Spinner Dolphins are a good clutch of marine mammals to have on a
sailing even during the in-season. To have them and shearwaters on an off-season sailing
was a good result.
35. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2015).See the seabirds. Sunday Times: Sri
Lanka. Sunday Times Plus. Page 6. Sunday 27 December 2015.
A summary of the sea birds recorded in Sri Lanka and where to see them.
In this article I outline the different families of birds which comprise the seabirds seen in
Sri Lanka, when and where they occur, and the best locations for seeing seabirds. Firstly,
let me explain what is meant by seabirds. These are families of birds that primarily hunt
for food in the sea. This excludes a number of birds such as waders like Sanderling which
are typically seen on the beach and may be referred to as coastal birds and not seabirds.
In terms of taxonomic classification, seabirds are not a natural, single grouping of birds
from a single family of birds. In some countries seabirds will include ducks (e.g. the
Eider Duck in Britain), cormorants (e.g. the Imperial Shag in the Antarctic Peninsula) and
other families which do not have representatives in Sri Lanka which qualify as seabirds,
How many seabirds and when can they be seen?
In Sri Lanka, at the time of writing, 51 species of seabirds have been recorded. They
belong to 3 scientific orders, and within those 3 orders they belong to 8 families. In the
accompanying table I have listed them as Resident (birds which breed in Sri Lanka),
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Migrants and Vagrants. Some species can occur both as a Scarce Breeding Resident as
well as a Migrant. The table is based largely on my experience and the published
literature and the classifications will change as more people take up seabird watching.
According to my table, of the 51 species, only 17 species are easy to see. Of the others,
12 species are Scarce Migrants, 6 are Highly Scarce Migrants and 16 are Vagrants
totaling 34 species.
In Sri Lanka all of these families are entirely seafaring except for the two families of
gulls and terns. Some species of gulls such as the Common Black-headed Gull often
spend the summer inland and breed inland. It’s a scarce winter visitor to Sri Lanka and
when seen is mainly on the coast. With the terns we have a family of birds that comprises
of true seabirds as well as some which are more inland in habitat. The terns include a
genus called Chlidonias or the “Marsh Terns”. This genus includes two migrants to Sri
Lanka; the Whiskered Tern and the White-winged Black Tern. On arrival both occupy
inland water bodies. The Whiskered Tern will take up residence in locations such as the
Talangama Tank whereas the White-winged Black Tern is more likely to be seen on the
coast or freshwater bodies close to the coast. Some terns such as the Gull-billed Tern
seem to be equally comfortable hunting over beaches as well as being at inland
freshwater bodies. Other species such as the Bridled Tern (also known as the Brown-
winged Tern) and the Sooty Tern are pelagic and never occur on the coast or inland
unless they are driven in by storms. The term pelagic is used to mean that an animal is
generally found where the sea is deep and well away from land.
Terns are also different from the other families of seabirds that occur in Sri Lanka in that
a few species of tern breed in Sri Lanka. They are rare breeders with the exception of the
Great Crested Tern. The Brown Noddy was considered a Highly Scarce Migrant to Sri
Lanka until September 2014 when it was found to breed in the third island of the Adam’s
Bridge. Bridled Terns once considered a passage migrant are also known to breed here in
small numbers. This island, a limestone and sand shoal, is the only seabird rookery of any
size in Sri Lanka and is critically important for locally breeding seabirds. On 25th August
2015, on a visit with Ajith Ratnayaka arranged with special permission from the Navy, I
counted 40 Brown Noddies in the field of view.
Some of the breeding terns occur as a locally resident sub-species and are joined by
migrant sub-species during the northern winter. The gulls and terns are the only two
families of seabirds that have species which take up residence in Sri Lanka during the
northern winter. The tropicbirds and boobies also take up a short-term residence but their
movements are dictated by the monsoons and their numbers are scarce. The tropicbirds
often roost atop coconut trees on the shore and the boobies will use a rocky islet close to
shore. But even the tropicbirds and boobies seem to stay for no more than a few weeks.
The other families of seabirds occur on passage. They are passing through often in a
grand movement across multiple oceans. This is a near year-round movement except
when the seabirds are nesting in their colonies usually on isolated islands. One of the
biggest passages on seabirds is a southward movement off the west coast of Sri Lanka
which peaks around August and September. This was first discovered and written about
by the late Thilo Hoffmann and subsequently also by Arnoud Van der Bergh. Since then,
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a detailed picture has been built up due to the perseverance of local ornithologist Rex de
Silva, who has studied the birds’ migration for a period of over two decades.
The arrival times of the Seabird Families
The table below summarises key aspects of the seasonality of different families. It is only
a general guide and some families of seabirds are seen off Sri Lanka outside the periods
listed in the table.
The ability to go out to sea easily only became possible after the intense publicity began
in May 2008 that Sri Lanka was best for Blue Whales which resulted in a viable whale
watching industry starting in Mirissa. Kalpitiya was publicised as a top spot for pelagic
seabirds only in May 2010 and for Sperm Whales in March 2010. So there is still much to
be leant.
Petrels
Summer months. Seen in the seabird mass migration in August to
September.
Shearwaters In late March to late April just before the South-west monsoon. Also
seen in the seabird mass migration from August to September.
Storm-Petrels Seen in the seabird mass migration from August to September.
Tropicbirds Typically arrive during the North-east Monsoon.
Gannets and
boobies
Typically arrive during the North-east Monsoon.
Frigatebirds Typically arrive during the South-west Monsoon.
Skuas
In late March to late April just before the South-west monsoon. Also
seen in the seabird mass migration from August to September.
Gulls Winter visitor between September to early April.
Terns Winter visitor between September to early April. A few tern species
have a locally resident sub-species.
Monsoons
South-west Monsoon: May to August
North-east Monsoon: October to January
Where to go Seabird Watching
Shore-based: The top sites are the Chilaw Sand Spit, Kalpitiya Peninsula and Mannar
Island.
Sea-based: Kalpitiya is the best for rare pelagics, followed by Mirissa and Trincomalee.
These are the three sites at which a whale watching industry has arisen.
Coastal Sites: Many coastal sites such as the Puttalam Salt Pans, Bundala and Palatupana
Salt Pans are also good for gulls and terns.
Seabirds from the Top Whale Watching Sites
Mirissa
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In August and September on days when the seas are calm enough for the whale watching
boats to go out, Flesh-footed Shearwaters can be seen. They are flying West and are often
seen in the company of the mass migration of Bridled Terns. An exciting time for
seabirds is around late March to mid April, just before the onset of the South-west
Monsoon. Unfortunately this is also the time that the sea becomes progressively rough.
At this time Pomarine and Parasitic (Arctic) Skuas appear. Usually one needs to be
around 10-15 nautical miles out, to see these birds. On a sailing in April 2008, with Dr.
Charles Anderson, we saw a flock of 17 Pomarine Skuas ; the total tally for the day was
42 Pomarine Skuas. Flesh-footed and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters also arrive at this time
and on a single sailing over a dozen sightings may at times be had. Brown Noddies (and
possibly Lesser Noddies) are occasionally seen with flocks of other terns. Other rarities
which have been recorded include Red-billed Tropicbird, White-tailed Tropicbird and
sight records of Sooty Shearwater. The Brown-winged or Bridled Tern is a pelagic
seabird rarely seen by shore-based birdwatchers but is easily seen throughout the season
from the whale watching boats. Other seabirds seen regularly include Little, Great
Crested and Lesser Crested Terns. Whiskered and White-winged Black Terns are birds
which winter inland, but as they prepare for the return migration, flocks gather by the
shoreline. White-winged Black Terns form flocks which hunt over the sea. The migration
patterns of the seabirds differ during the March-April period. The “Marsh Terns” will be
moving north. The Brown-winged Tern may be on a return migration to South-west
Australia. The Shearwaters are flying west to the Arabian Sea. The Pomarine Skuas
appear to be flying east to the Bay of Bengal.
Kalpitiya
As with Mirissa, the boats will start whale watching once the seas are calm after the
South-west Monsoon. December to mid April are good months for going out to sea.
Many seabirds can be seen off the Kalpitiya Peninsula. Hunting along the coastlines are
Gull-billed Terns. Lesser Crested and Large Crested Terns are often seen in mixed tern
flocks which have Gull-billed as well as Little Terns and, less frequently, Common
Terns. I have often seen flocks of Little Terns in the food rich areas between the lines of
longitude E 79 35 and E 79 38. On the beach you may see Whiskered and White-winged
Black Terns. Both species are migrant “Marsh Terns” and are rarely seen over the sea.
However, flocks of White-winged Black Terns gather to feed at sea off Mirissa at the tail
end of the migration. There are a few records of exhausted Sooty Terns landing on the
beach. I photographed one on 20th May 2010 at Kandakuliya. Bridled Terns are pelagic
birds seasonally seen in good numbers. Unless there is bad weather, they rarely venture
close to shore. The area between E 79 35 and E 79 38 also seems to be one of the best
places for seeing Lesser and Brown Noddies; two more species of dark terns. Most
observers in Sri Lanka have found them hard to find whereas in Kalpitiya I have even had
a Lesser Noddy attempting to land on our boat.
A Long-tailed Skua was photographed by Riaz Cader and me on 11th April 2010. This
may be confirmed as the second record of this species in Sri Lanka and one of the first
few for the Indian Subcontinent. Although I have photographed Pomarine Skua, I have
not seen them in the numbers they are seen off Mirissa. In April 2010 I also had a flock
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of over 35 Persian Shearwaters. The Persian Shearwaters recorded on this trip may be the
third record from Sri Lanka. I have also photographed Persian Shearwaters in April 2011
and April 2012 and I suspect they are regular in April off Kalpitiya.
Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed Shearwaters also join some of the mixed species seabird
feeding flocks. I have had had glimpses of petrels but not been able to identify them. On
15th January 2012, Riaz Cader went out to sea and photographed a rarely recorded
Brown Booby. This adds further confirmation to my claim that one of the easiest places
in Asia in which to see rare pelagic seabirds is the sea off the Kalpitiya Peninsula.
Brown-headed Gull, a winter visitor in low numbers has been recorded. The nearby salt
pans at Puttalam usually have a few Caspian Terns which make an occasional appearance
in Kalpitiya. On 25th February 2013 Ashan Seneviratne photographed a Pallas’s Gull. It is
not a rarity, but winters typically north of Mannar. The area over the 400m isobath
offshore from Kandakuliya seems to be a pelagic bird sweet spot and this may be due to a
confluence of nutrients from different sources creating a rich zone of marine life. The
400m isobath also comes closer to shore as one moves north along the peninsula. This
explains why whales and pelagic seabirds are seen close to Kandakuliya and the Bar
Reef.
Trincomalee
The North-east Monsoon blows from October to February. The whale watching season
begins in Trincomalee in March as the seas become calmer. Between March and the first
week of April, Trincomalee has the added benefit of migratory Blue Whales who are still
present. The seabirds will be similar to Mirissa and Kalpitiya. At the time of writing, very
few birders have been at sea and the species list is relatively thin. Brown-winged Terns
are at times seen relatively close to shore. In April 2012, I found shearwaters and skuas
were absent from Trincomalee, when only a few days earlier they had been seen in
Kalpitiya. This could be due to the upwellings happening on the west coast at this time of
the year and creating better conditions for feeding for seabirds there rather than in
Trincomalee.
A summary of the Seabirds of Sri Lanka
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34. de Silva Wijeyeratne, Gehan. (2015). Where are the Greatest Great Whale Gatherings? Wall Street International Online Magazine. November 2015.
Published in 4 parts between 2nd November and 15th November 2015.
PART 01 http://wsimag.com/science-and-technology/17968-great-whale-gatherings
Where are the Greatest Great Whale Gatherings?
If you were a documentary filmmaker wanting to film the greatest gatherings of great
whales, where would you go? The same question might cross the mind of a scientist, a
whale enthusiast planning a whale watching tour or a commercial wildlife tour operator
planning a product expansion. In this article, I hope to provide some answers. What
surprised me is that although much has been written about whales, very little has been
written to pinpoint which species and where the greatest great whale gatherings take
Scarce Resident Resident Migrant Scarce Migrant Highly Scarce Migrant Vagrant
Order ProcellariiformesPetrels and shearwaters Family Procellariidae
Wedge-tailed Shearwater Persian Shearwater Barau's Petrel Cape Petrel
Flesh-footed Shearwater Bulwer's Petrel
Jouanin's Petrel
Streaked Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Short-tailed Shearwater
Storm-Petrels Family Hydrobatidae
Wilson's Storm-Petrel Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel White-faced Storm-Petrel
Black-bellied Storm-Petrel
Tropicbirds Family Phaethontidae
White-tailed Tropicbird
Red-billed Tropicbird
Order Procellariiformes
Gannets and boobies Family Sulidae
Masked Booby Red-footed Booby
Brown Booby
Frigatebirds Family Fregatidae
Lesser Frigatebird
Great Frigatebird
Christmas Frigatebird
Order Charadriiformes
Skuas and jaegers Family Stercorariidae
Pomarine Skua Brown Skua Parasitic Skua South Polar Skua
Long-tailed Skua
Gulls Family Laridae
Heuglin's Gull Common Black-headed Gull Sooty Gull
Great Black-headed Gull 'Steppe' Gull
Brown-headed Gull Slender-billed Gull
Terns Family Sternidae
Gull-billed Tern Great Crested Tern Gull-billed Tern Sandwich Tern Lesser Noddy Black-naped Tern
Caspian Tern Little Tern Caspian Tern Common Tern White-cheeked Tern
Roseate Tern Lesser Crested Tern Sooty Tern
Common Tern Brown-winged Tern Brown Noddy
Saunders's Tern Whiskered Tern
Brown-winged Tern White-winged Tern
Sooty Tern
Brown Noddy
17
place. What is the equivalent in the oceans, of the annually recurring Elephant Gathering
in Minneriya in Sri Lanka?
To share my conclusions up-front, it seems that of any great whale, the greatest recurring
gathering is that of the Grey Whales nursing young in Laguna Ojo de Liebre in Mexico.
Other whales which gather in large numbers, albeit unpredictably and often with little or
no public access to ordinary tourists, include Antarctic Minke Whales in Eastern
Antarctica. These aggregations are often driven by unpredictable super-blooms of krill.
Only one toothed whale, the Sperm Whale makes it into the list of great whales. For the
Sperm Whale, the greatest gatherings take place off Sri Lanka, but they are highly
unpredictable unlike the gatherings of the Grey Whales. However, when the Sperm
Whale super-pods are seen, they may make a stronger visual impression as large numbers
move together. With the Grey Whales, they are spread out in a large lagoon and only a
few at a time may be in the field of view.
Great whales for which there have been records of large gatherings include the Sperm
Whale, Antarctic Minke Whale, Grey Whale, Humpback Whale and the Bowhead Whale.
Although Blue Whales are not known in the literature for large aggregations, I mention
the Blue Whales off Sri Lanka. Sperm Whales are the most social of the great whales. It
seems that the famous Elephant Gathering in Sri Lanka is mirrored in the sea by a Sperm
Whale Gathering where in a relatively concentrated area over 250 Sperm Whales may be
seen. (More details on the Elephant Gathering are in the article ‘Branding Wildlife
Brands: The Elephant Gathering’ published in the Daily FT (Sri Lanka) on 27th
September 2012). However, the Sperm Whale Gathering lacks the same predictability of
time and location as the Elephant Gathering and I would caution people against travelling
to Sri Lanka in the expectation that their visits will coincide with one of these great
gatherings. But Sri Lanka seems to offer one of the best chances to view or film a
visually spectacular great gathering of great whales and it is special that a great whale
gathering is within reach of the public, albeit subject to chance.
I focus on the ‘great whales’ as large gatherings by them attract public interest although
large gatherings by the smaller species of dolphins are no less spectacular. The great
whales were subject to ferocious hunting in the 19th and 20th centuries. We very nearly
drove these sentient beings to extinction. The term ‘great whale’ encompasses the
world’s 13 largest whales (or more, depending on taxonomic splits) including the Blue,
Fin, Sei, Common and Antarctic Minke, Humpback, Grey, Bryde’s, and the 3 species of
Right Whales (the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern), Bowhead and the Sperm
Whale. The whales in scientific taxonomy belong to two groups, the baleen whales and
the toothed whales. The former have sheets of baleen or whalebone suspended from the
upper jaw, which they use to filter feed. Of the great whales, all but the Sperm Whale are
baleen whales. In this article published in four parts, I will discuss some of the papers and
observations, which relate to large aggregations of great whales.
My discussion on the baleen whales is relatively brief, as it seems that the Grey Whale is
a clear winner and the other large aggregations of the other baleen whales have
limitations with access, unpredictability or being too spread out to offer a visual spectacle
of a mass of animals. I dwell at length on the Sperm Whale, long famed for large
aggregations, but it seems not as much as the popular literature would have us believe.
18
For ease of reference, I have broken this multi-part article into a section on baleen whales
where I discuss a few species and a second section on toothed whales where I discuss just
one species, the Sperm Whale.
Baleen Whales of the Northern Hemisphere
Grey Whales
The largest great whale gathering I know of based on published data, since W.D. Boyer’s
observation (more on this later in the second section on Sperm Whales) is from a paper
by Steven Swart and others which refers to counts in the Laguna San Ignacio and in the
Ojo de Liebre. In the Laguna San Ingacio they used a standard line transect method by
travelling in a 7m outboard powered boat at a speed of 11km/hr. This is faster than the
typical speed of the whales, which reduces the likelihood of the same whale being
counted twice. The transect takes approximately three hours. In their paper titled
‘Numbers of Gray Whale (Estrichtus robustus) utilizing Laguna San Ignacio and Laguna
Ojo de Liebre, Baja California Sur, Mexico during the winter breeding seasons:2007-
2003’ they provide counts of adults and female-calf pairs combined, from 107 boat
surveys between 2007 and 2013. The highest count was 320 on 26th February 2011,
which comprised of 261 single adults and 59 mother-calf pairs. Thus if the calves were
added as well the total count would have been 379. The lagoon is over 8km wide in
places with the boat having visibility to 2.5km on either side and therefore these boat-
based surveys are able to count the total number of whales in the lagoon with a
reasonable chance of success.
But very importantly in the context of my article, their paper also includes the results of
12 surveys between January and April 2013 in the Laguna Ojo de Liebre, two of the three
primary Grey Whale calving and breeding lagoons for the Grey Whales in the Eastern
Pacific. The lagoon is 48km long and 9km wide. On 25th February 2013, they counted
137 single adults and 592 mother-calf pairs giving a count of 720. This would be 1,321
whales if calves were counted as an individual whale. They also include a table of data
(provided by the Subsecretaria de Gestion Para La Proteccion Ambiental, Direccion
General de Vida Silvestre, of Mexico) which summarises the highest counts between
2007 and 2013. In all of these years, the highest count of single adults and mother-calf
pairs (treated as a single unit) were in excess of 500. The highest was on 5th March 2012
and comprised of 1,523 single adults and 1,198 mother- calf-pairs to give a count of
2,721. If the calves are added, this would be 4,919 individual Grey Whales. Such
recurrent, large numbers of whales gathering seasonally is probably be the greatest
recurring gathering of great whales in the world. To the best of my knowledge, these
counts exceed anything ever documented on large aggregations of great whales. Both
locations are well known to local and international wildlife tour operators who lead tours
to these famed nursery sites. Mark Carwardine, who leads tours to Laguna San Ignacio in
a series of emails in May 2015 to me noted that ‘....several hundred is normal during the
winter breeding season....’. It would seem to me that for scientists and whale watchers, in
search of great whale aggregations, Grey Whales in the lagoons of San Ignacio and Ojo
de Liebre may be the top choice in the world, subject to the caveat that the number of
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whales simultaneously in the field of view may not be as many as when a Sperm Whale
super-pod numbering over 40 individuals is encountered. It surprises me that the local
and international whale watching companies and local tourism authorities do not brand it
as the ‘Greatest Gathering of Great Whales’.
Humpback Whales
Humpback Whales are known to gather in feeding grounds and many whale watchers
have seen groups in Alaska hunting using the famous bubble netting technique. However,
the highest concentration recorded may not be in North America be in what Douglas P.
Nowacek and others published in a paper titled ‘Super-Aggregations of Krill and
Humpback Whales in Wilhelmina Bay, Antarctic Peninsula’. In their paper published in
April 2011, they reported on a super-aggregation of krill of the level which had been
absent in the scientific literature for over 20 years. On 1st May 2009 they entered
Wilhelmina Bay in the Western Antarctic Peninsula and recorded 149 sightings of 306
Humpback Whales in 65 km of line transect surveys with a density of 5.1 whales per
square kilometre. They believe this density was the highest point estimate for Humpback
Whales reported in the Antarctic. Whale watchers off British Columbia have reported
encountering pods of Humpback Whales where individuals are all around them.
However, at the time of writing I have not come across any technical papers, which
suggest that more than a dozen are found in a pod.
Bowhead Whales
Bowhead Whales have a population that occupies the Eastern Canadian Arctic and West
Greenland. There is another population as well between the Chukchi Sea and the
Beaufort Sea, which winters in the Bering Sea.
Of the population mentioned first, Bowhead Whales are known to gather in large
aggregations especially in Isabella Bay and Disko Bay in West Greenland. The
Government of Canada’s website for the Ninginganiq National Wildlife Area (accessed
in June 2015) states ‘...Up to 100 Bowheads have been recorded at one time in Isabella
Bay, making this the single largest known concentration for this species anywhere in
Canada’. K.J. Finley in his paper in 1990 titled ‘Isabella Bay, Baffin Island: an important
historical and present-day concentration area for the endangered Bowhead Whale
(Balaena mysitcetus) of the Eastern Canadian Arctic’ presented results that showed that
107 unique whales had been photographed between 28th -29th September 1996. The
Bureau of Ocean Management published a study on 15th July 2013 titled “Bowhead
feeding Ecology Study (BOWFEST) in the Western Beaufort Sea”. In their summary of
aerial surveys, the highest count was on 18 flight hours logged between 29th August to
18th September 2009. They had 102 sightings of 452 Bowheads. During a five year study,
762 unique whales were identified from photographs.
The second population of Bowheads referred to above occurs seasonally in the area from
the Chukchi Sea to the Beaufort Sea. Carin Ashjian and others in a paper titled ‘Climate
Variability, Oceanography, Bowhead Whale Distribution and Inupiat Subsistence
Whaling near Barrow, Alaska’ published in 2010 report on aerial surveys conducted in
20
August and September in 2005 and 2006. They reported aggregations of Bowhead
Whales of between 50-100 in early September of both years. Sue Moore and others in
their paper titled ‘Bowhead Whales Along the Chukotka Coast in Autumn’ published in
1995 reported single day counts of 76 and 50 Bowheads on 1 October 1992 and 3
October 1993, respectively. S.W. Landino and others in 1994 published a paper titled ‘A
Large Aggregation of Bowhead Whales (Balaena mysticeus) Feeding near Point Barrow,
Alaska in Late October 1992’. On 19th October 1992, they observed 16 groups and 11
singletons, for a total of 104 whales over an area of 277 square kilometres. The largest
single group contained at least 30 whales.
PART 02 http://wsimag.com/science-and-technology/17969-great-whale-gatherings
Baleen Whales of the Southern Hemisphere
Fin Whales
Fin Whales are occasionally recorded in large aggregations. Elke Burkhardt and Caterina
Lanfredi in their paper ‘Fall feeding aggregations of fin whales off Elephant Island
(Antarctica)’ noted that on 17 and 21st March 2012, a group of more than 100 Fin Whales
was observed during a study that comprised of 26 days of surveys. The mean group size
was four although they observed larger group sizes of over 20. These aggregations were
the result of large Antarctic krill swarms. Jorge Acevedo and others in a paper titled
‘Sighting of the fin whale in the Eastern Subtropical South Pacific: Potential Breeding
Ground?’ reported that they had encountered a group that may have numbered over 100.
The sighting was 1,517nm off the continental coast of Chile on the 30th May 2010. The
previous large concentration of Fin Whales in the South Pacific was a group of 50 on 4th
November 1958 reported by Robert Clarke in his paper ‘Whale Observations and whale
marking off the coast of Chile in 1958 and from Ecuador towards and beyond the
Galapagos Islands in 1959’. This sighting was estimated at ‘150 to 170 miles from shore’.
Antarctic Minke Whales
The phenomenal gathering of Grey Whales in Mexico is not to say that high
concentrations of baleen whales do not occur in other parts of the world. Antarctica
seems to be especially productive for great whales, probably as a result of the krill
blooms that take place. Robert Pitman drew my attention to a reference of an aggregation
of 400 Antarctic Minke Whales in the Encyclopaedia of Marine Mammals, 2nd edition by
William Perrin, Bernd Würsig and J.G.M. Hans Thewissen. I investigated the question of
how frequently the Antarctic Minke Whales in gather into large aggregations in
Antarctica. From the International Whaling Commission (IWC), I received ship-based
survey data on 22,468 Minke Whale schools, where Minke was the first or only species
21
recorded. The data was logged on 1,237 survey dates in the period from 25th December
1978 to 27th August 2010; a span of thirty-three years. Schools were classified as distinct,
if groups were more than about 0.3 nautical miles apart. On 17th January 1987, when the
large count of 400 Minke Whales in a school was made, 32 other schools were also
recorded with sizes ranging from one to five, with the majority being a school size of one
(i.e. a single whale). It is clear that the estimate of 400 was on the same basis as others
and is a real figure and not a statistical extrapolation. Most papers I have seen on
Antarctic Minke Whales are of a statistical nature and the sizes of the large schools are
lost in low-value arithmetic means which reflect that Minke Whales typically occur in
small schools. The mean school sizes in all the years ranged between two and five.
The count of 400 Minke Whales was recorded only once in 1987. The next highest counts
of over 100 Minke Whales were as follows: 140 (once), 120 (once), 118 (once), 115
(twice) and 100 (seven times). During email correspondence in May 2015, I also asked a
few scientists for details of the largest ‘in the field of view’ counts they have had of
schools of Minke Whales. The feedback I received included from Paula Olson (‘...50-60
Minke Whales...’) and Paul Ensor (‘...Detections of large groups are also made from
platforms other than the IWC research ships, for e.g. in Jan 2014, during helicopter
surveys for Killer Whales in McMurdo Sound, I observed a group estimated at 60
individuals, all within 5 body lengths of a group member, and there were other groups in
the area as well.....’). Minke Whales are not truly social animals but concentrate into large
ephemeral gatherings for feeding. These concentrations are believed to have been higher
nearer the pack ice. In dialogue with Trevor Branch and Mark Bravington, I gathered that
the surveys moved away from the pack ice after 1984. Although the highest count was
after this, it is possible that large concentrations in areas such as Prydz Bay close to the
pack ice are now being missed. Antarctica seems to be very important for great whale
concentrations of Minke Whales. However, this would not be evident from commercial
whale watching cruises as they do not visit Prydz Bay in Eastern Antarctica. For
example, Mark Carwardine who is a well-known author and populariser of whale
watching has been to Antarctica around 23 times. However, he noted that he has not been
to Prydz Bay and the largest school of Minke Whales he had seen had comprised of six
whales.
22
I also received data from the IWC for Fin Whales, Humpback Whales and Southern
Right Whales. I have shown the largest school sizes encountered in a single chart. The
most notable is a school of 100 Fin Whales. Although Eastern Antarctica may in
aggregate have the largest numbers of whales, it appears that to find large schools is
difficult for these three species.
Dwarf Minke Whales
Dwarf Minke Whales are an undescribed sub-species of the Common Minke Whale
found in the southern hemisphere. They aggregate in the northern Great Barrier Reef
during the Austral winter. This is considered to be the only predictable, recurring
aggregation of Dwarf Minkes and has led to a licensed swim with whales program since
2003.
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Size of Largest Minke Whale School (Red columns) vs Number of Schools Recorded (Blue area on secondary axis), by Year
No of Schools
Size of Largest School
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Largest Schools of Fin, Humpback & Right Whales in IWC surveys in Antarctica
Fin Largest School Humpback Largest School Southern Right Largest School
23
The whales are usually in small numbers with the largest schools in the field of view that
have been seen ranging from 12-15. The Minke Whale Project of James Cook University
has maintained records of the number of whales estimated to have been seen during a
day. These total counts for the day attempt to exclude re-sighting but cannot be exact.
There are several reports each year of Dwarf Minke Whale schools with counts in the 20-
30+ range, most in the vicinity of Ribbon Reef No. 10. During correspondence in August
2015 with me, Dr. Matt Curnock provided information on the largest estimates of total
day counts of unique whales. The largest estimated counts were 50 plus whales on 24th
June 2003 at Ribbon Reef No. 10, approximately 50 whales on 14th July 2009 at Cairns
Section, a minimum of 46 whales based on photo ID on 7th July 2010 at Ribbon Reef
No. 10 and potentially 100 plus whales on 24th June 2012 at Ribbon Reef No. 10.
Although the arrival and aggregation of the whales is seasonally predictable and provide
for wonderful interactions, the chances of whale watchers encountering a large school
appears to be low.
Right Whales
Right whales are also reported in large aggregations. Ocean Alliance in their website state
that for years they have studied a population of Right Whales which uses the bays of
Peninsula Valdes as a nursery ground. They say the study begun in 1970 follows the lives
of 2,600 individual whales. Maurico Failla and others in their paper ‘Historical records of
southern right whales (Eubalena australis) of the province Rio Negro, North Patagonia
(1991-2008)’ documented 308 records comprising of 425 whales. The mean group size
was 2 and the maximum was 7. It seems unlikely that the Southern Right Whales are
found in concentrations which rival that of the other great whales discussed earlier.
The North Atlantic Right Whale has been hunted close to extinction and only 400 are
estimated to remain in the North Atlantic. The North Pacific Right Whale is rarely seen
having also been pushed close to extinction.
Blue Whales
Blue Whales are not true social animals and are typically seen as individuals or in a
mother and calf pair. They have until recent years been regarded as one of the hardest
animals to see in the planet and not described in the scientific literature as being seen in
large aggregations. In this article, I have shown that many of the baleen whale
aggregations with the exception of the Grey Whales seem to occur unpredictably when
there is a high concentration of krill. There are observations to suggest that in areas such
as Trincomalee and Mirissa in Sri Lanka, there could be significant numbers of Blue
Whales during the seasonal krill blooms. Not in the hundreds, but perhaps in
aggregations no less noteworthy than what has been described for other baleen whales
such as Bowhead Whales.
For example, on 24th April 2011 South of Mirissa I counted seven simultaneous Blue
Whale spouts. At the same time, Dr. Charles Anderson, an experienced marine mammal
observer was on another boat in the same locale and estimated that he had seen 17
individual Blue Whales in an approximately 5 kilometre square area (25 square
kilometres). On 5th November 2010, Anoma Alagiyawadu, a Jetwing Lighthouse Hotel
naturalist observed an astonishing 25 Blue Whales travelling together. At first, he thought
it was a pod of Sperm Whales as he had never seen Blue Whales in such high numbers
24
close to each other. Aerial surveys if conducted in the future may show that Blue Whales
periodically gather in high concentrations off Mirissa and Trincomalee.
PART 03 http://wsimag.com/science-and-technology/17982-great-whale-gatherings
The Sperm Whale, the only Great Whale of the Toothed
Whales
In the first section of this multi-part article, I posed the question of where the greatest
gatherings of great whales occur and discussed various candidates amongst the baleen
whales. Familiar whales such as the Blue Whale which feed by filtering water through
baleen plates in their mouth are known as baleen whales. In this section of the article, I
explore the subject of large gatherings which are reported for the Sperm Whale, the only
toothed whale large enough to be classified amongst the great whales. In the first section
of this article, I concluded that the greatest gatherings of great whales must be that of the
Grey Whales gathering in breeding lagoons in North America. However, I also noted that
as the whales are spread out, in terms of a visual spectacle, a super-pod of Sperm Whales,
may be more spectacular. Sperm Whale are truly social animals, the elephants of the sea.
However, encountering a super-pod is a matter of chance and in this second section of
this article, I pick up their story.
Sperm Whales
In the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) on 5th August 2012 I published the claim that Sri Lanka
offers the best chance of seeing a super-pod (defined as more than 40 individuals) of
Sperm Whales on a commercial whale watch. It leads to the bigger and more important
claim that one of the biggest, recurrent, contemporary gatherings of great whales occurs
off Sri Lanka.
The large gathering of Sperm Whales off Sri Lanka has not been recorded annually. But
super-pods numbering over 40 individuals have just about been recorded each year since
2009. The large gatherings of over 250 Sperm Whales may not occur each year, or it may
only last a few days each year and may be missed by the absence of observers. It will be
hard to verify its annual occurrence unless more seasoned and attuned observers are out
in the water or there is programme of aerial surveillance. I say ‘attuned’ because most
local naturalists had failed to recognise the international significance of these super-pods
and some records may have been ‘lost’ if it were not for conversation with me. Although
large super-pods exceeding 100 Sperm Whales have been recorded in Mirissa in the
South and Kalpitiya in the North-west, so far the large gatherings of over 250 Sperm
Whales in a concentrated area have only been observed in Trincomalee in the Northeast
of the island. The counts I refer to are only on surface counts as is the norm when
reporting counts of whales.
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These gatherings are probably the greatest ever known for Sperm Whales except for two
previous observations published in 1839 and in 1946. In a letter to the editor of Natural
History (55:96), W.D. Boyer, referred to an observation on 28th August 1945 off Peru at
approximately 6 degrees South and 82 degrees West, near the Galapagos. This letter is
also quoted in the prologue of Hal Whitehead’s book ‘Sperm Whales: Social Evolution in
the Ocean’. It states ‘....approximately 400 to 600 whales were to be seen at one time
from the centre of the school and it can be safely assumed that the entire school consisted
of well over 1,000 whales.’ The February 1946 issue of Natural
History also carried a comment to Boyer’s letter by George G. Goodwin of the American
Museum’s Department of Mammals. Excerpts from his comments include ‘.... In recent
years 30 or 40 of them would be considered an exceptionally large school of them…’
and ‘ .... Thomas Beale stated in his Natural History of the Sperm Whale (1839) that he
had one school of as many as five hundred or six hundred. The log books of whaling
ships, so as far as I can learn, give no such stupendous figure.’ Unfortunately, Beale
provides no details in Chapter VI on ‘Herding, and other particulars, of the Sperm
Whale’, in his book merely stating that ‘I have seen in one school as many as five or six
hundred’. R. A. J. W. Lever writing in the South Pacific Bulletin in 1954 in his article
‘Whales and Whaling in the Western Pacific’ states that ‘In the early whaling days,
schools or ‘pods’ numbered up to 100, but extensive hunting in which nursing mothers
and young were not spared, so reduced this figure to about 15’.
Hal Whitehead and his team of researchers have been studying whales in the Eastern
Pacific near the Galapagos. There are no contemporary accounts of such large gatherings
of Sperm Whales. In a conversation I had with Hal Whitehead in London on 29th August
2013, he told me that his research team has seen pods of Sperm Whales of 50-100. In an
email to me on 15th April 2015, he commented ‘I would note that there is a very good
reason why there have not been enormous groups seen in the eastern tropical Pacific
since Boyer's day. His observation was just before massive and largely unregulated
whaling in the region (ca. 1948-1982’).
PART 04 http://wsimag.com/science-and-technology/17984-great-whale-gatherings
The Sperm Whale Super-pods
In this final part of this multi-part article, I continue with the story of Sperm Whales and
in particular on the super-pods recorded off Sri Lanka.
The Sperm Whale is the great whale, which is typically a social animal and famed for
large concentrations in the whale literature from the 19th to 21st centuries. It is the
‘Elephant of the Sea’; females and immature males form breeding schools in the tropics
and live in social units. However, in my article in the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) I
explained that the references in many popular books on whales, of thousands of Sperm
Whales being seen together suggested as being normal is incorrect. This is an erroneous
26
interpretation of Hal Whitehead’s book where he estimates that approximately 750 Sperm
Whales may be found in a concentration spanning 300km and in discussing the impact of
modelling assumptions states ‘.....while one 500km across would have about 22,000'. I
suspect the discussion on modelling and the impact of assumptions on statistical
measures have resulted in other writers misinterpreting that it is normal to see Sperm
Whales in the thousands. The mean pod sizes listed in Whitehead’s book range from 18
to 29.8. In conversation with him and other scientists and professionals in whale
watching, I clarified that a pod of over 40 Sperm Whales is something special. Since
then, inspired by my encounters with large pods of Sperm Whales in Mirissa, Kalpitiya
and Trincomalee, I have been seeking data from whale watching guides and boat
operators in Sri Lanka for continuing evidence of this claim.
In addition to the annual super-pods, the key evidence so far of large gatherings off Sri
Lanka is a Sperm Whale gathering recorded in March 2012 and another recorded on 29th
September 2014. In 2012, a super-pod was observed between 8th March and 27th March,
which had more than 40 individuals together during this period. Nilantha Kodithuwakku
and Buddika (‘Daya’) Dhayarathne, two naturalists of Cinnamon Nature Trails who were
resident at Chaaya Blue, a John Keells Hotel, took clients out to view and or dive with
the whales. Client estimates varied, from Amos Nachoum estimating around 60-80 to
Andrea Steffen, who has studied Sperm Whales off Dominica, estimating over a hundred.
I had extensive face-to-face discussions with Nilantha and Daya on two separate visits to
Sri Lanka to gain clarity on the March 2012 super-pod. They noted that on 4 days from
20th March to 23rd March 2012, the numbers on the ocean surface in the field of view
peaked at approximately 200 to 250. This is a phenomenal concentration or gathering, as
this was a surface count based on what they thought they could see around them.
Over two years later, on 29th September 2014, Daya encountered the largest aggregation
of Sperm Whales he had ever seen with an estimate of over 300 Sperm Whales. I
discussed this in detail with him by phone. He had travelled about 8km offshore from
Trincomalee and then travelled around 13km towards Pigeon Island. He encountered 12-
13 pods of Sperm Whales each containing 20-30 on the surface. Chitral Jayatilake who
leads the team of Cinnamon Nature Trails naturalists arranged to fly out the next day to
photograph this large gathering of Sperm Whales. Daya headed out to sea to locate the
whales and relay the GPS coordinates, but the Sperm Whales were gone, although Daya
did see an estimated eight Blue Whales on that day. Between March 2014 and September
2014, Daya had regularly encountered small pods of Sperm Whales at sea, up to the date
of the large gathering referred to above. He speculates that the whales had gathered
before moving out of the area together and he did not see them until March 2015.
The Sperm Whale super-pod data I have shows that super-pods occur regularly. These are
summarised by month and location and by year and location in the accompanying tables.
But note that the number of days seen is not the same as individual super-pods. The
March 2012 super-pod in Trincomalee was seen on 20 days and may have comprised of
many of the same whales although it is possible that in these gatherings there could be
turnover of the specific individuals present from one day to another.
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The most significant super-pods besides the two already mentioned include the
following: between 16th to 18th April 2013 in Kalpitiya a super-pod seen by various
observers with some estimates over 100 but conservatively estimated at 70, on 9th March
2013 a super-pod estimated between 150 to 200 by various observers off Mirissa, on 12th
March 2013 an un-confirmed report by fishermen (relayed by Ashan Seneviratne) of a
super-pod of 200 in Kalpitiya (the count needs to be treated with caution; but may have
been large and is noteworthy given the sighting in Mirissa a few days earlier), on 22nd
Sperm Whale Super-pod (> 40 whales)
No of Days Seen. By Month and Location
Month Kalpitiya Mirissa Mullaitivu Trincomalee Total
January 1 1
March 4 4 1 25 34
April 5 4 9
May 2 2
September 1 1
November 1 1
December 1 1
9 11 1 28 49
Sperm Whale Super-pod (> 40 whales)
No of Days Seen. By Year and Location
Year Kalpitiya Mirissa Mullaitivu Trincomalee Total
2009 1 1
2010 1 1 1 3
2011 4 1 5
2012 5 1 20 26
2013 2 4 6
2014 4 4
2015 1 3 4
9 11 1 28 49
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Max Number Counted in Largest Sperm Whale Super-pods from Sri Lanka
28
March 2013 a super-pod of 100 off Mirissa relayed by Tony Wu who had an underwater
image which showed 23 Sperm Whales in one frame, on 15th March 2014 a super-pod of
75 seen by Dr. Charles Anderson in Trincomalee, on 11th May 2014 a super-pod of 70
seen by Nilantha Kodithuwakku (conveyed by Georgina Gemmell) off Trincomalee, and
on 24th March 2015 a super-pod with a surface count of 110 plus stragglers seen off
Kalpitiya by a team including personnel from Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC).
The last observation was released in social media as possibly the largest gathering of
Sperm Whales seen in living memory and the count was estimated at between 350-500
(but this included whales estimated at being present under water). Based on the surface
count relayed to me by email, this observation was more likely to have been on par with
the super-pod of 16th -18th April 2013 in Kalpitiya. On the basis of comparable surface
counts, it is not the largest seen off Sri Lanka or in living memory.
The significance of these large Sperm Whale super-pods can be seen in context in the
following comments I received in response to my article in the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)
on 5th August 2012. Tony Wu, an award winning underwater photographer wrote to me
on 8th August 2012. “I have seen groups of up to 20 or so animals in Japanese waters, but
never up to 40-50 as you report. I talked with my friends who pioneered the Sperm
Whale watching industry in Ogasawara, Japan, where I photographed the Sperm Whales
eating giant squid. They have been observing Sperm Whales since the mid-90s in that
area, and are probably the most experienced Sperm Whale people in Japan. They
confirmed that they have only seen up to around 20 animals in a given group....’.
Michael Fishbach (Great Whale Conservancy) wrote on 5th August 2012. “I think I can
clarify what you wrote about the Sea of Cortez and Sperm Whales. During my Blue
Whale work there over the past 18 years the biggest pod of Sperm Whales I have
encountered is an estimated 70. Amazing and unforgettable are two words I can
associate with that encounter. The Azores is another location famed for its Sperm
Whales. In a paper by Sara Magalhaes and others published in 2002 in the journal
‘Aquatic Mammals’ on reactions of Sperm Whales to whale watching vessels, they
published details of pod sizes observed. In 69 land-based sightings, group size averaged
3.1 with the maximum being five. On 40 sightings in boat-based observations, the mean
group size was again 3.1 with a maximum of seven. Compare this with Sri Lanka where
super-pods are annually encountered which comprise of more than 40 whales.
The naturalists who take people whale watching off Sri Lanka are often pre-occupied
with handling clients and it is possible that the numbers in super-pods are under-counted,
or that when clients spend time with one pod of Sperm Whales, other pods in the close
vicinity may be missed unlike in a scientific survey using a line transect method. But the
two observations in March 2012 and in September 2014, together with the other
observations, underline how important the waters off Sri Lanka are for large
concentrations of these great whales. The large numbers present off Sri Lanka’s waters
are probably a result of the nutrient flows arising from upwellings from the two
monsoons, nutrient flow from the Indian mainland and the 103 river systems in Sri
Lanka. In February 2012, a team from the Ceylon Bird Club during an annual waterfowl
census estimated over a million shorebirds from a single point of view in Mannar. This is
probably the largest flock of migrant shorebirds counted from a single viewpoint. The
nutrient dynamics which support large numbers of wintering migrants are probably the
same which support the presence of Blue and Sperm Whales in Sri Lankan coastal
waters.
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An analysis of 19th century whaling logbooks by Charles Townsend covering 1,665
voyages published in Zoologica, the journal of the Zoological Society of New York was
accompanied by four charts, which showed the locations of where whales were hunted.
This clearly shows that the New England whalers took Sperm Whales off Sri Lanka but
not to the degree elsewhere. It is also possible that the Sperm Whale aggregations off Sri
Lanka escaped the brunt of the 20th century whaling. However, the Northern Indian
Ocean Blue Whales were subject to intense illegal Soviet whaling. Whether it was less
whaling pressure or nutrient dynamics, or both, Sri Lanka is now a custodian of an
important world heritage of great whale aggregations.
Conclusion
Let me conclude this multi-part article’. Although, in popular parlance there are
references to large aggregations of Right Whales, Minke Whales, Humpback Whales and
Bowhead Whales they do not seem to be occurring frequently enough, predictably
enough and in large enough numbers to be a visual spectacle for it to be an wildlife
tourism event. In terms of visual effect, a super-pod of Sperm Whales off Sri Lanka may
well carry the biggest visual impact. However, this is not predictable enough to become a
commercially viable wildlife event. The large aggregations of Grey Whales are
predictable in timing of year and location and the tourism infrastructure is in place. The
large aggregation appears to be spread out so that tourists are not confronted with the
visual spectacle of a large gathering of large animals as with the Elephant Gathering in
Sri Lanka where over 100 elephants are frequently in the field of view from a single
point. Nevertheless, it seems that the Grey Whales of Laguna San Ignacio and Laguna
Ojo de Liebre, best meet the description of the greatest gathering of great whales. In
2011, the magazine Wild Travel published a special issue on the ‘100 natural wonders
that everyone should see in their lifetime’. The Grey Whale gathering in the nursery
lagoons was missing. I suspect because there is no branding that there is no realisation
that besides the amazing intimacy of being able to touch Grey Whales, in these lagoons
are also the Greatest Gathering of Great Whales, which are annually recurrent and
commercially viable for tourism. I would anticipate that for ‘Conservation through
Commerce’ to work, this tagline will be adopted by those seeking to take tourists out
there as well as those who need to raise grants for science and conservation.
Acknowledgements
A number of individuals have assisted in many ways. None of them necessarily share the
views I have made in this article and any mistakes or errors of opinion remain mine.
Mark Carwardine was very helpful in challenging my first draft and encouraging me to
extend the scope of the article. Robert Pitman, Hal Whitehead, Charles Anderson and
Georgina Gemmell commented on early drafts. Tara Wikramanayake made numerous
copy edits. A number of individuals answered questions, provided information, made
helpful introductions or shared and gave useful points to ponder. These include Robert
Pitman, William Perrin, Trevor Branch, Doug Butterworth, Mark Bravington, Paul Ensor,
Paula Olson, Elke Burkardt, Koji Matsuoka, and Matt Curnock. Lauren Horncastle tidied
citations for me. Gabriel Jamie scanned the original letter by W.D. Boyer and the
30
response to it from the University of Cambridge library. Mark Bravington shared a data
summary from the IWC cruises which helped me to better articulate a request to the IWC.
Kate Wilson and Marion Hughes provided data from the IWC database. Vanessa
Williams-Grey emailed me soon after her field observation of the Sperm Whale super-
pod sighting in April 2015 and in the subsequent dialogue Hal Whitehead drew attention
to Boyer’s published account. Many people have over the years shared their data with me
and were individually acknowledged in my previous article on Sperm Whale super-pods.
I owe special thanks to Buddika (‘Daya’) Dhayarathne and Nilantha Kodituwakku who
have shared their sightings, especially from Trincomalee, with me. My thanks also
Joshua Barton, Matt Curnock and Chris Breen who provided images and additional
information.
Papers consulted in the multi-part article on the ‘Greatest Gatherings of Great Whales
In this multi-part article in Wall Street International, I have sought to answer the question of where the greatest great whale gatherings have occurred or continue to occur. I consulted a number of people and read a number of scientific papers. The people who have helped me in various ways are mentioned in the acknowledgements. This multi-part series article will be a useful reference to media, whale watchers and others with an interest in marine biology. I have therefore included this supplementary bibliography which includes the citations of the papers I consulted.
Only papers which are relevant in the context of information on large, great whale aggregations are listed here. To make it easier for a non-scientific audience, the citations are grouped by type of whale rather than in the usual alphabetical manner in a formal publication.
Bowhead Whales
1. Born, E. W. and Heide-Jørgensen, M. P. (1983). Observations of the bowhead whale (Balaena mysricetus) in central West Greenland in March-May 1982. Rep. Int. Whal. Comm. 33, pp 545-547.
2. Hansen, R.G., Heide-Jørgensen, M. P. and Laidre, K. L. (2012). Recent abundance of bowhead whales in Isabella Bay, Canada. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. 12 (3), pp 317-319.
3. Heide-Jørgensen, M. P., Laidre, K. L., Wiig, Ø., Postma, L., Dueck, L. and Bachmann, L. (2010). Large-scale sexual segregation of bowhead whales. Endangered Species Research, 13, pp 73-78.
31
4. Heide-Jørgensen, M. P., Laidre, K. L., Borchers, D., Samarra, F. and Stern H. (2007). Increasing abundance of bowhead whales in West Greenland. Biology Letters, 3, pp 577-580.
5. Landino, S. W., Treacy, S. D., Zerwick, S. A. and Dunlap, J. B. (1994). A Large Aggregation of Bowhead Whales (Balaena mysticetus) Feeding near Point Barrow, Alaska, in Late October 1992. Arctic, 47 (3), pp 232-235.
6. Moore, S. E., George, J. C., Coyle, K. O. and Weingartner, T. J. (1995). Bowhead Whales along the Chukotka Coast in Autumn. Arctic, 48 (2), pp 155-160.
7. Reeves, R. R. and Heide-Jørgensen, M. P. (1996). Recent status of bowhead whales, Balaena mysticetus, in the wintering grounds off West Greenland. Polar Research 15 (2), pp 115-125.
Fin Whales
8. Acevedo, J., O’Grady, M. and Wallis, B. (2012). Sighting of the fin whale in the Eastern Subtropical South Pacific: Potential breeding ground? Revista de Biología Marina y Oceanografía 2012, 47, pp 559-563.
9. Burkhardt, E. and Lanfredi, C. (2012). Fall feeding aggregations of fin whales off Elephant Island (Antarctica). IWC SC paper SC/64/SH9 (unpublished).
Gray Whales
10. Swartz, S.L., Urbán R., J., Gómez-Gallardo U., A., Martínez, S., Robles M, J.I., López, I.G. & Rojas-Bracho, L. (2013). Numbers of Gray Whales (Eschrichtius Robustus) utilizing Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, Mexico during The Winter Breeding Seasons: 2007-2013. Rep. Intl. Whaling Commission, Scientific Committee SC/65a/BRG06.
Humpback Whales
11. Anonymous. (2010). Advice relevant to the identification of critical habitats for north pacific humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). DFO Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat Science Response, 2009/016. Fisheries and Oceans Canada Science.
12. Ashe, E., Wray, J., Picard, C. R. and Williams, R. (2013). Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area. PLoS ONE 8(9):e75228.
13. Johnston, D. W., Friedlaender, A. S., Read, A. J. and Nowacek, D. P. (2012). Initial density estimates of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in the inshore
32
waters of the western Antarctic Peninsula during the late autumn. Endangered Species Research, 18, pp 63-71.
14. Nowacek, D. P., Friedlaender, A. S., Halpin, P. N., Hazen, E. L., Johnston, D. W., Read, A. J., Espinasse, B., Zhou, M. and Zhu, Y. (2011). Super-Aggregations of Krill and Humpback Whales in Wilhelmina Bay, Antarctic Peninsula. PLoS ONE 6: e19173 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019173
15. Waite J. M., Dahlheim, M., Hobbs, R. and Mizroch, S. (1999). Evidence of a feeding aggregation of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) around Kodiak Island, Alaska. Marine Mammal Science 15 (1), pp 210–220.
16. Witteveen, B. H., Wynne, K. M. and Quinn II, T. J. (2007). A Feeding Aggregation of Humpback Whales Megaptera novaeangliae near Kodiak Island, Alaska: Historical and Current Abundance Estimation. Alaska Fishery Research Bulletin, 12 (2).
17. Fisheries and Oceans Canada. (2013). Recovery Strategy for the North Pacific Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Canada. Species at Risk Act Recovery Strategy Series. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ottawa. x +pp 67.
Minke Whales
18. Branch, T. A. (2006). Abundance estimates for Antarctic minke whales from three completed circumpolar sets of surveys, 1978/79 to 2003/04. IWC SC paper SC/58/IA18 (unpublished).
19. Branch, T. A. (2014). Southern Hemisphere minke whales: standardised abundance estimates from the 1978/79 to 1997/98 IDCR/SOWER surveys. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management, 01/2001 (3), pp 143-174.
20. Hirohisa, K., Hidehiro, K., Fujio, K. and Yoshihiro, F. (1991). Detection of heterogeneity and estimation of population characteristics from the field survey data: 1987/88 Japanese feasibility study of the southern hemisphere Minke whales. Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics September 1991, 43 (3), pp 435-453.
21. Kasamatsu, F., Ensor, P. and Joyce, G. G. (1998) Clustering and aggregations of minke whaIes in the Antarctic feeding grounds. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 168, pp 1-11.
22. Kasamatsu, F., Nishiwaki, S. and Ishikawa, H. (1995). Breeding areas and southbound migrations of southern minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 119, pp 1-10.
23. Kelly, N., Peel, D. and Bravington, M. V. (2014). Distribution and abundance of Antarctic minke whales in sea ice regions of East Antarctica: a summary of results. IWC SC paper SC/65b/IA15 (unpublished).
24. Matsuoka, K., Ensor, P., Hakamada, T., Shimada, H., Nishiwaki, S., Kasamatsu, F. and Kato, H. (2003). Overview of minke whale sightings surveys conducted on IWC/IDCR and SOWER Antarctic cruise from 1978/79 to 2000/01. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management, 5 (2), pp 173-201.
33
25. Murase, H., Kitakado, T., Matsuoka, K., Nishiwaki, S. and Naganobu, M. (2007). Exploration of GAM based abundance estimation method of Antarctic minke whales to take into account environmental effects: A case study in the Ross Sea. IWC SC paper SC/59/IA12 (unpublished), pp 13.
26. Shimada, H. and Kato, A. (2005). Preliminary report on a sighting survey of Antarctic minke whale within ice field conducted by the Ice Breaker, Shirase in 2004/2005. IWC SC paper SC/57/IA7 (unpublished), pp 14.
34
Dwarf Minke Whales
27. Birtles, A., Valentine, P., Curnock, M., Mangott, A., Sobtzick, S. & Marsh, H. (2014). Report to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority on the Dwarf Minke Whale Tourism Monitoring Program (20032008). Research Publication No. 112. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
28. Sobtzick, S. (2010). Dwarf minke whales in the northern Great Barrier Reef and implications for the sustainable management of the swim-with whales industry. PhD thesis, James Cook University.
Right Whales
29. Failla, M., Vermeulen, E., Carabajal, M., Arruda, J., Godoy, H., Lapa, A., Mora, G., Urrutia, C., Balbiano, A. and Cammareri, A. (2008). Historical records of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) of the province Río Negro, North Patagonia, Argentina (1991-2008). IWC SC paper SC/60/BRG1 (unpublished).
Multi-Species
30. Anonymous. (2012). Known Biologically Important Areas for Cetaceans Chukchi Sea and Alaskan Beaufort Sea. Represents work done by Janet Clarke of Science Applications International Corporation, with review and revisions contributed by the Cetacean Mapping Working Group members.
31. Branch, T. A. and Butterworth, D. S. (2014). Estimates of abundance south of 60°S for cetacean species sighted frequently on the 1978/79 to 1997/98 IWC/IDCR-SOWER sighting surveys. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management, 3 (3), pp 251-270.
32. Clarke, R. (1962). Whale observation and whale marking off the coast of Chile in 1958 and from Ecuador towards and beyond the Galapagos Islands in 1959. Norsk Hvalfangst-tid. 51 (7), pp 265-287.
33. Ensor, P., Komiya, H., Beasley, I., Fukutome, K., Olson, P. and Tsuda, Y. (2007). 2006–2007 International Whaling Commission-Southern Ocean Whale and Ecosystem Research (IWC-SOWER) cruise. IWC SC paper SC/59/IA1 (unpublished).
34. Ensor, P., Minami, K., Morse, L., Olson, P. and Sekiguchi, K. (2008). 2007-2008 International Whaling Commission-Southern Ocean Whale and Ecosystem Research (IWC-SOWER) cruise. IWC SC paper SC/60/IA1 (unpublished).
35. Matsuoka, K., Hakamada, T., Kiwada, H., Murase, H. and Nishiwaki, S. (2005). Abundance Increases of Large Baleen Whales in the Antarctic based on the
35
Sighting Survey during Japanese Whale Research Program (JARPA). Global Environmental Research 9 (2), pp 105-115.
36. Matsuoka, K., Watanabe, T., Ichii, T., Shimada, H. and Nishiwaki, S. (2003). Large
whale distributions （South of 60°S, 35°E－130°E）in relation to the southern boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. eds Huiskes, A.H.L., Gieskes, W.W.C., Rozema, J., Schorno, R.M.L., van der Vies, S.M. and Wolff, W.J. Antarctic Biology in a Global Context. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden 3, pp 26-30.
37. Nishiwaki, S., Ogawa, T., Matsuoka, K., Mogoe, T., Kiwada, H., Konishi, K., Kanda, N., Yoshida, T., Wada, A., Mori, M., Osawa, T., Kumagai, S., Oshima, T., Kimura, K., Yoshimura, I., Sasaki, T., Aki, M., Matsushita, Y., Ito, H., Sudo, S. and Nakamura, G. (2007). Cruise report of the second phase of the Japanese Whale Research Program under special permit in the Antarctic (JARPA/JARPAII) in 2006/2007 –feasibility study- IWC SC paper SC/63/O4 (unpublished).
38. Scheidat, M., Friedlaender, A., Kock, K.H., Lehnert, L., Boebel, O., Roberts, J. and Williams, R. (2011). Cetacean surveys in the Southern Ocean using icebreaker-supported helicopters. Polar Biology 34, pp 1513–1522.
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33. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Watching Seabirds in Kalpitiya.
Ahasa: in-flight magazine of Mihin Lanka. Issue 18. October 2015. Pages 36-39.
Counting the annual mass migration of Bridled Terns from the Kalpitiya Peninsular.
"10 Bridled, flying South, two thirds out" called out Ayanthi Samarajewa. I wrote it
down whilst Ajith Ratanayaka and Buddhika Dayarathne picked them up using their
'bins' (as birders refer to their binoculars). Ayanthi was taking her rotation on a 5 minute
count through a telescope mounted facing West on the Kalpitiya Peninsular, a thin finger
of land which juts out and runs parallel to the mainland on the Northwest shoreline of Sri
Lanka. We had left Colombo in the early hours and had arrived at Palagama Beach, one
of a handful of pioneering beach resorts which are clustered together midway on the
peninsula. Whilst most guests on arrival will contentedly sip a welcome drink and wipe
off journey fatigue with a cold towel we had raced down to the beach. Any minute now
the darkness would be evaporated by a blazing orb rising in the eastern sky. For some
reason I don't fully understand, the migrating seabirds become harder to see as the sun
comes up. They seem to move further out so that they are out of view of shore-based
watchers.
We had arrived to watch the annual migration of Brown-winged or Bridled Terns. An
estimated half a million terns pass through. I had first watched them in the 1980s, three
decades ago as a schoolboy when I had joined Rex de Silva in Kinross near Colombo on
his pioneering seabird watch studies. He was the first to maintain a systematic count year
after year. The birds can even be seen from vantage points in Colombo during August
and September, but very few people are aware of this important seasonal passage of
birds, streaming past the shoreline. Perhaps the main reason for the lack of awareness is
that it is not a great visual spectacle. For the average person, it cannot compete with other
seasonal event in the animal world, such as the Elephant Gathering. The sight of a
hundred elephants gathered together is mind blowing, even emotional. Everyone is
impressed or affected by the drama of it. The passage of several thousand seabirds from a
biological perspective is no less important. But it lacks visual and physical impact. The
sky does not fill with birds. One does not have to shout to be heard above the deafening
roar of a thousand calling seabirds. Instead, like the arrow of time, it is deliberate,
incremental and its effects are best seen when summed up as an aggregate. Sometimes it
is a slow drip of a few birds every five minutes. Sometimes a flock of a few tens bursts
across the circular field of view framing sky and sea. Sometimes in an hour 500 birds
may fly making their passage. The migration route of the Bridled Terns is not fully
understood. Another seabird that can be seen at the same time is the Flesh-footed
Shearwater. It is believed to undertake a circular journey from the West of Australia
towards the Seychelles (off the East coast of Africa and North of Madagascar), winging
back across the Arabian Sea, past the West coast of Sri Lanka and back again to
Australia. Although we did not see Shearwaters in Kalpitiya on this visit on the 1st of
September 2015, Ajith and I saw a few from Mirissa a week later on the 7th of
September.
37
Sea watching has its own charm and a certain tension. There is the eager anticipation
when it is your turn at the scope. There is also tension. The birds cross the field of view
within a few seconds testing your field skills. When counting you cannot turn the scope
to track any flying birds so you need to be able to identify anything you see within a few
seconds. This is not always possible with birds at a great distance and the category
'unidentified' in our data table held a fair number of birds. As observers get their eye in
and become more adept, the number of 'unidentifieds’ fall. There is also a certain
aesthetic magic in sea watching. The waves toss and turn and roll into shore. Seabirds
flap languidly with the wind behind them or beat strongly against stiff winds. Sometimes
they weave and roll over the heaving sea. There is an aura of animals driven with a sense
of purpose, an urge to migrate in conflict with the physics of the planet. In August, the
South-west Monsoon is trailing off. The sea rushes in angrily to the sandy beach and
breaks in a roar. The sea watcher is filled with a visual and aural experience. He sees the
struggle of the migrating seabirds flying into the wind and he can hear the thundering surf
which the wind has brought to his feet. It is exhilarating and draining. Every second is a
drama of the struggle of life, for animals to travel thousands of mile in epic migrations
following oceanic currents which with them carry their food.
Soon after 7 am after we had done over an hour's count we tabulated the numbers and
took breakfast in the thatched dining area of Palagama Beach. A full Sri Lankan breakfast
with chilled fruit juice is a luxury and not what one would expect minutes after a sea
watch. But it this blend of luxury and marine life which makes Kalpitiya special. During
the whale watching season I have with my family returned from many encounters with
Sperm Whales to freshly brewed coffee and breakfast at the resorts in Kalpitiya. There
was one more marine experience awaiting us before we went for a game drive at Wilpattu
National Park. We used a boat from the pier at Kalpitiya town to take us across Dutch
Bay to Gange Wadiya on the mainland. From there we took a safari vehicle arranged for
us by Palagama Beach to take us into Wilpattu through the recently opened entrance at
Elivankulam. Crossing Dutch Bay we looked hopefully for the ‘Pink Dolphins’ or the
Indo Pacific Humpback Dolphins which are seen in the lagoon. The chances were slim
and we did not see them but were compensated by the sight of two Oystercatchers, a rare
migrant. They were large elegantly waders with red beaks and legs and striking black and
white plumage. The Kalpitiya Peninsula is like a large land and marine nature reserve
offering access to a variety of wildlife. This is nicely complemented with some very
classy resorts.
38
32. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Sri Lanka’s Potential for Marine Mammal Tourism. Life Times: Sri Lanka. August 2015. Pages 47-49.
An overview of Sri Lanka’s marine mammal tourism product and the importance of the
‘Three Es’ in developing marine tourism.
The rise in whale watching tourism in Sri Lanka has been exponential following the
initial media blitz in May 2008 that Sri Lanka was “Best for Blue”. The Blue Whale was
one of the hardest animals to see. Even marine mammal researchers considered it a dream
to see one. The rapid rise in whale watching tourism in Sri Lanka is because the media
publicity married science with commerce. The whale watching encounters corresponded
with the claims made in a world-wide media campaign and the consumers bought into it.
So will Sri Lanka surpass other whale watching destinations? Before I answer this
question let me examine what attributes a destination needs to have to succeed in marine
mammal tourism. First and foremost it needs to offer a species or an experience for which
there is a public appetite large enough for it to be commercially viable. Secondly, that
animal or different species of animal must satisfy the “Three Es”. Thirdly, the physical
environment and tourism logistics must support it.
Let’s start with the tourism product that Sri Lanka has. There are two or possibly three
big draws with marine mammals. The first is the Blue Whale and in my view this is the
species that can form the foundation for Sri Lanka’s success as a marine mammal
destination. In the South of Sri Lanka, Blue Whales have a higher encounter area than
even for any species of dolphin. The 2014/15 season’s data shows that in peak months the
encounter rate is still around 90%. The second of the big draws is that it offers the best
chance of seeing a super-pod of Sperm Whales, the largest toothed carnivore on the
planet. However, the occurrence of these super-pods or the arrival of the breeding schools
of smaller pods are unpredictable and cannot be the foundation of a whale watching
industry. The Sperm Whales when seen are a bonus. But the super-pods are valuable in
giving it media coverage. A third possible draw is the Spinner Dolphins. Encounters of
these are regular but except at Kalpitiya, are not frequent enough to have been the basis
for a significant whale watching industry. In Kalpitiya however, they are frequent enough
in-shore of the reef where dolphin watching became established before the presence of
Sperm Whales in the 'Sperm Whale Strip’ (Longitude E79 35 to E 79 40) was publicised
in March 2010. However, there are many places in the world where dolphin watching is
established and has both the encounter rate and the occasional super-pods and with a
chance of seeing great whales as well. So it seems unlikely that Sri Lanka would have
become a premier destination for whale watching were it not for the largest animal alive;
the Blue Whale.
The ability for the Blue Whales to catapult Sri Lanka into the premier league has been on
the strength of the “Three Es”. The “Three Es” are the Encounter Zone, Encounter
Season and Encounter Rate. Let me explain this. For wildlife tourism to succeed, a target
species must have a zone in which it occurs with predictability throughout the year or
within a season. The Encounter Zone must also be one into which there is access to
39
tourists. The easier it is to transport tourists there and back, the higher the flow of tourists
will be. The Blue Whales off Mirissa could not fulfil these conditions any better. They
are often within 15 nautical miles off shore for 5 months of the year, off a tropical island
which means tourists from a string of hotels can be taken to the whales and back in a few
hours. The infrastructure is in place, the climatic conditions are tropical and there is a
ready supply of clientele.
So let’s go back to the question whether Sri Lanka will surpass other whale watching
destinations. Sri Lanka will be in the premier league for whale watching destinations
thanks to the high encounter rates of Blue Whales. If you could only go to one place, in
my view there is no clear winner. Whale watching is a multi-dimensional experience; it’s
a personal and emotional experience. Perhaps the greatest experience is to be in a boat in
the San Ignacio Lagoon and to have a mother Grey Whale introduce her calf to a boatload
of people. To have an animal that was once known as the devil fish, trust its calf to a
company of people and to allow it to be touched and embraced by people must be an
overwhelming experience. For others it may be to watch Humpback Whales breaching in
Alaska. Or perhaps it is to stand in the wintery chill in Iceland and watch a pod of Orcas
glide into a fjord. Or maybe it is to have a Blue Whale surface near you in Sri Lanka.
40
31. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Is Sri Lanka still best for Blue? Sunday
Times: Sri Lanka. Sunday Times Plus. Page 6. Sunday 16 August 2015.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/150816/plus/is-sri-lanka-still-best-for-blue-whales-
160601.html
Encounter rates based on nearly a thousand whale watching trips from Mirissa are
analyzed and discussed.
In this article, I ask the question of whether Sri Lanka can still claim to have the best
encounter rate for Blue Whales on commercial whale watching trips. It will help if I first
provide some background. In May 2008, I broke the story that Sri Lanka was Best for
Blue Whale and publicised an encounter rate of 90%. It was a bold claim to make as it
was based on a limited data set of 23 days with whale watching trips in April 2008. I
fully disclosed this in my article which was circulated widely. On these dates in April
2008, there had been an encounter rate of 100% on those dates and there were reasons to
explain the presence of whales off the South coast at that time of the year. I had already
branded Sri Lanka for Leopard Safaris and for the Elephant Gathering and had the
experience to know when a wildlife spectacle was a periodic and predictable event,
suitable for commercialisation.
As I made clear in that article, I drew on discussions with Dr. Charles Anderson who had
based his views on strandings in the Maldives. He believed that an East-West migration
of Blue Whales took place between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Anderson
had published papers in 1999 and 2005, in which his thoughts on Blue Whale distribution
and movements within the Northern Indian Ocean were summarised. Anderson published
a paper in 2012, which was an expansion of those ideas, including new sightings data
from Sri Lanka. This was a formal, scientific paper with no claim of Sri Lanka being best
for Blue Whale, let alone being a good location for Blue Whales. Neither did he publish
any encounter rates for whale watching or refer to my shamelessly commercially oriented
claims published earlier in 2008. During the WhaleFest in October 2012 which was held
in Brighton, at the Bar of the Hilton, in conversation with him, I asked him why it was
that he did not even on his website claim that Sri Lanka is Best for Blue Whales. His
frank reply was that he tends to think about these things in a different way, i.e. from a
scientific rather than a commercial perspective. The next day at a talk I gave at
WhaleFest in which he attended, I referred to this conversation pointing out that it
illustrates the different approach that he as a scientist and I as a developer of commercial
wildlife tourism have taken with the same underlying story. Anderson brought out a
meticulous scientific paper in 2012 carefully avoiding claims with a commercial agenda.
In contrast I rushed out a commercially significant story based on a single season’s data,
field experience, commercial intuition and faith in Anderson’s migration hypothesis.
I am always in search of big stories of international significance that will attract
journalists and film crews. I saw the Best for Blue Whale story as a way to create
livelihoods from wildlife tourism, especially important in a country that had experienced
the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 and was still in the middle of fighting a civil war with
41
ruthless separatists. I also saw it as one of the best avenues through which to execute a
conservation agenda. My strategy was ‘Conservation through Commerce’. However, I
have always believed a good story should be substantiated with data and hands-on field
experience. This was why I always ground-truth my stories as far as possible and ensure
that there are logical reasons to explain why a spectacular wildlife event can be expected
to be a periodic event suitable for wildlife tourism as a commercial product. Because of
this and my natural curiosity or leaning to science, I have continued to collect data from
whale watchers and the whale watching boat companies on encounter rates. So although
Anderson and I may have differed substantially in how we sculpted the same raw
material, we share a common interest in science and grounding our views in science.
It is useful to see if seven years later, the test of time has affirmed my intuition over Sri
Lanka being ‘Best for Blue Whale’. The data I have on whale watching trip encounters is
not collected to a rigorous scientific protocol. The collection of data has been sporadic,
but I have compensated for this by only calculating encounter rates for months where
there have been at least 10 sailings. An encounter in this context is seeing one or more
Blue Whales on a whale watching trip. It is difficult to gauge how many different
individual whales are being seen on a whale watching trip and it is not uncommon for
whale watchers to multiple count the same whale that is diving and re-surfacing in
different locations. Therefore a simple measure as whether one or more Blue Whales
was seen or not works better as an indication of the likelihood of seeing a Blue Whale.
One of the biggest risks with this type of data which is not designed to a strict scientific
protocol is that sailings on which whales are seen are more likely to be reported than
sailings on which whales are not seen. This is especially true in the first few years when
whale watching began and reporting of sightings was irregular. Thus there is risk that the
data is biased towards a better encounter rate. Nevertheless, some data is better than mere
conjecture and a few days with nil sightings which go unreported will not change the
rates significantly.
The accompanying table is from a series of analyses which I have with Georgina
Gemmell made available on-line in an intermittently updated deck of PowerPoint slides.
Gemmell patiently logged into an Excel spreadsheet, data I had collected over the years.
We also drew heavily for more recent years from data provided by Mirissa Water Sports,
the pioneering whale watch tour operator in Mirissa. From an ad-hoc dataset of 992
sailings between 1 April 2008 and 5 May 2015, I have calculated the encounter rates for
months where there have been 10 or more sailings available in the data. This more than
ten sailings criteria avoids spurious results like a month which has had just one sailing
and a sighting of a whale producing an encounter rate of 100%. The number of sailings
used in the analysis with this restriction reduces only modestly to 942 sailings. This
remains a good number of sailings from which to draw valid conclusions, subject to the
caveats mentioned before. The resulting encounter rates are very high, most within the
range of 70%-90%, as shown in the table. Note that these are monthly encounter rates
indicating the proportion of sailing in which one or more Blue Whales were seen.
In several of the peak whale watching months, the encounter rate exceeds 90%. This is
best shown in the graph which shows the rates for the best three months in a calendar
year. Despite the caveat mentioned earlier that the data from commercial whale watching
is not robust as that collected to a scientific protocol, it’s is clear that the encounter rates
are spectacularly high, especially for an animal that was once so hard to see.
42
Besides the encounter rate of Blue Whales, other interesting patterns emerge. For
example on 98% of the 992 sailings from Mirissa, a marine mammal has been
encountered. The encounter rate for any marine mammal could be treated as an overall
‘whale watching efficiency rate’. On this basis Mirissa has a staggering 98% efficiency.
But this metric needs to be treated with caution. An encounter may be a fleeting glimpse
in the distance of a dolphin or it could be one where a boat kept its engine on idle whilst
Blue Whales fed beside the boat for an hour. An efficiency ratio does not shed light on
the quality of the sighting. Neither does it tell you if the whale watching on that boat and
that of surrounding boats was handled in a responsible way to contribute to an ethical and
pleasurable experience.
Blue Whale Monthly Encounter Rate (%) on months with more than 10 Sailings
Month 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Jan 0% 80% 86% 83% 87% 86% 71% 90%
Feb 0% 74% 82% 100% 95% 80% 86% 75%
Mar 0% 81% 93% 82% 89% 62% 93% 84%
Apr 96% 93% 85% 88% 100% 69% 86% 97%
May
Jun OFF SEASON
Jul
Aug
Sep 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 20% 69% 0%
Oct 0% 75% 0% 100% 50% 0% 71% 0%
Nov 100% 0% 100% 65% 44% 79% 93% 0%
Dec 50% 45% 95% 86% 50% 70% 73% 0%
100%
93%
100% 100% 100%
86%
93%
97%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Best Three Monthly Encounter Rates (Blue Whales in Mirissa)
Best
Second Best
Third Best
43
An interesting result is in that there is no unambiguous trend in the encounter rates
decreasing despite the surge in the number of whale watching boats. Given the accounts
in the media of whale watching boats harassing the whales, a reduction in encounter rates
may be expected. But we must be cautious in interpreting the data as the quality of the
encounters could be lowered if whales are being harassed by boats. Whales could become
harder to locate for an individual boat, but the overall encounter rate may remain high as
there are more boats out there increasing the search effort and communicating by mobile
phone to other boats when they find one. In 2008 and 2009, there were days when I was
the only person out whale watching and encounter rates were entirely a measure of one
boat’s effort. Nowadays, it is a collective effort.
On 27 December 2014, a few months shy of 7 years from 1 April 2008 when I first
encountered both Blue and Sperm Whales on a sailing from Mirissa, I was out at sea
again with Mirissa Water Sports. I observed how several boats had lined up neatly in a
row on one side of two feeding Blue Whales. The whales had fed next to the boats for
almost an hour. The boats were lined up in a text book style manner of responsible whale
watching. I suspect this was partly accidental in that the line of approach to the whales
resulted in the boats lining up rather than encircling them which would have driven them
away. This good behaviour may also have been partly a result of several initiatives to
both regulate and encourage responsible and ethical conduct when whale watching. One
of the notable initiatives has been supported by Sri Lankan (the airline) in partnership
with the UK based conservation charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Sri Lanka has
a great tourism product in its Blue Whales but in terms of its overall offering, the
responsible conduct of whale watching boats will be a defining factor in the future.
For a wildlife tourism product to be successful, it must satisfy the “Three Es”. These are a
reliable Encounter Zone, Encounter Season and very importantly a good Encounter Rate.
The Blue Whales, the leopards and the Elephant Gathering all satisfy the “Three Es” very
well. In this article I focussed on the data that continues to support Sri Lanka's claim to
be a top whale watching destination, on the back of a good encounter rate for Blue
Whales. But from the perspective of gaining column inches of international press
coverage, a species need not satisfy the “Three Es” in the way required for commercial
success. A case in point is the yet mysterious Orcas that visit Sri Lanka. They are very
rare, with usually just one or two records a year; even this being a recent phenomenon
based on the presence of whale watching boats. The Orca Project Sri Lanka (OPSL)
administered by Gemmell has, using a Citizen Science photo identification study
identified 13 individual Orcas. A pair of them (OM001 and OK008) has been recorded
from Mirissa, Trincomalee and Kalpitiya. Using information provided by whale
watchers, Gemmell and others have already had a paper accepted for publication in
Aquatic Mammals, a leading peer reviewed journal. The Facebook page has gained a
number of followers and draws attention to cetacean research in Sri Lanka. Therefore
even charismatic animals with low encounter rates can provide a country with
international publicity.
For wildlife tourism, the marine mammal tourism works well with the island’s terrestrial
offerings which have astonishing species richness per unit area basis, compared with
other much larger tropical islands. For more details on this, my article on why Sri Lanka
44
is super-rich for wildlife can be easily retrieved from the web. Sri Lanka also has the
largest annually recurring gathering of wild elephants and is outstanding for leopard.
What more can you give an island that is super-rich for wildlife?
30. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2015). Orcas in Sri Lanka. Quarterly Bewsletter
June 2015. Friends of Sri Lanka Association.
An overview of the Orca Project Sri Lanka with results to date.
Sri Lanka is not particularly well known for Orcas. There is a good reason for this, Orca
sightings are scarce, at best a handful a year. However, some very interesting behaviour
has been observed off Sri Lanka including a hunt on a pod of Sperm Whales and the
stalking of a Blue Whale calf. Although Orca sightings are scarce, the Orcas seen off Sri
Lanka are coming into the spotlight thanks to the Orca Project Sri Lanka (OPSL). This is
administered by a young English woman, Georgina Gemmell, who worked as a full-time
resident naturalist in Sri Lanka for over two years in successive assignments with the Eco
Team (also known as Mahoora Tented Safaris) and Cinnamon Nature Trails, a part of the
John Keells Group. In addition to their interesting behaviour, these Orcas are becoming
known because of the public science project that OPSL maintains in relation to
photographic identification of individual Orcas and the collection of interesting
observation data.
Gemmell has identified a total of 13 individual Orcas visiting Sri Lankan waters. Of these
a pair, OM001 and OK008, has been seen on twelve different occasions. They were also
the first to have been recorded in the whale watching triangle sites of Mirissa, Kalpitiya
and Trincomalee. The letters OM and OK represent O for Orca and M and K for Mirissa
and Kalpitiya respectively to indicate where an individual was first photographed and
added to the Photo ID catalogue. Another three Orcas have been recorded on what are
termed ‘re-sightings’. The records log holds 45 records, of which 43 are live sightings. A
monthly update is circulated by Gemmell and people can subscribe to the update or
submit pictures to her on [email protected]. She also maintains a
Facebook page.
The Orca OM003 in the picture was photographed by the well known nature writer
Marianne Taylor. It is special because it was only when I received this picture that I
realised a public science project would help to log sightings and start unravelling the
mysteries of the Orcas seen off Sri Lanka. In addition to her work in Sri Lanka, Gemmell
had spent six months on an Orca research project in British Columbia, making her an
obvious choice for a project which has been making steady and good progress.
45
29. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2014). Gentle Giants of the deep. Wall Street
International. On-line magazine. Published 2 February 2014.
http://wsimag.com/science-and-technology/12785-gentle-giants-of-the-deep
Discusses the issue of ethical whale watching and the risk to Blue Whales which feed on
the shipping lanes off the south of Sri Lanka.
A thin column of white mist almost a kilometre away wafted over a flat sea and I
instantly recognised it. I called out 'Blue Whale'. A depression over Southern and South-
east Asia had lifted ending nearly two weeks of continuous and unseasonal wet weather.
The sea was calm and in the absence of wind there were no ‘white tops’ to the waves.
Conditions were ideal for spotting a whale's blow (also known as a spout). Under gusty
conditions the ephemeral blow is snatched away by the wind in an interval of time even
shorter than the usual second or so that the spout is suspended in the air. The difficulty of
seeing the blow is compounded by the white tops that distract the eye. It is hard to think
that the largest animal that has ever lived is hard to see even at close range. In a rolling
sea, a Blue Whale on the surface can go unnoticed even at a few tens of meters if its blow
did not reveal its presence. If you had no reason to look for its signature in the air, you
probably will not notice it in much as the same way a Londoner hurrying into the city
will not notice a Blackbird foraging in the shrubbery.
In May 2008, when I launched a media blitz that the Blue Whale hitherto considered one
of the hardest animals to see, was easy to see off Sri Lanka, I was greeted with disbelief
by the Sri Lankan tourism industry. If Sri Lanka was 'Best for Blue' they questioned, why
had no one noticed it before? There were tourist hotels on the beach and there was a
thriving fishing industry. I would respond by asking when was the last time you saw a red
car on the road? If you don't have a reason to look for something, you will not see it. I
would stop fishing boats and ask the occupants about whales and they would have a
vague recollection of having seen one a long time ago. I would sometimes see Blue
Whales surfacing near fishing boats and the fishermen being oblivious to the giants
beside them.
In January 2009, with Shyamalee Tudawe (the Editor of Sri Lankan society magazine Hi)
I led a celebrity whale watching tour for the Amangalla Hotel organised by its then
General Manager Olivia Riccli. A reason for the celebrity whale watch was to raise
awareness of people in Colombo that Sri Lanka was one of the top whale watching
destinations in the world. Joining us was Srilal Miththapala who was then President of
the Sri Lanka Hotels Association. He had co-championed the Elephant Gathering with
me and his objective was to report back to his hotel industry colleagues if there was much
truth in my media blitz. I had begun the media blitz after British marine biologist Charles
Anderson had told me and subsequently tested his prediction that Blue Whales will come
close to the South of Sri Lanka. The story has been told in previous articles and in this
article I want to move onto my whale watch six years later in December 2014.
46
When I began to establish the likelihood of encountering Blue Whales off Sri Lanka, I
was often the only person taking a boat out under a support agreement with Mirissa
Water Sports who sailed the ‘Spirit of Dondra’ for me, for the cost of diesel. Six years
later, I was now whale watching as their guest at the invitation of their new General
Manager Asanga Coorey. I was with my family and the Forbes and Ratnavale families.
Things were different now. Manjula, one of the original crew who took a gamble with me
in April 2008 was now skippering the boat. He said that up to 60 boats take people out
whale watching. I noticed on a signboard at the Mirissa Harbour that the local boat
operators association has over twenty registered operators. Competition is fierce he told
me and they have upped their service levels to fend off the competition. A packed
breakfast, any amount of bottled water, biscuits and a serving of mint toffees is now a
standard inclusion in the price. Most importantly the crew remain razor eyed as always.
Being experienced, they try to keep calm when less experienced boats may be tempted to
rush into a whale and spoil the sighting for everyone.
There had been increasing concerns about boats chasing whales and I had discussed this a
few weeks earlier in London with some visiting tour operators from Sri Lanka. I had
suggested that with the boat operators association in Mirissa, they lobby for a code of
conduct that once a boat had got to a whale, boats arriving subsequently line up beside
that boat. This prevents a whale feeling it is being pursued as boats converge on it from
all directions. They are used to fishing boats strung out in a line and if whale watching
boats strung themselves out in a line rather than encircling a whale, it is less likely to be
threatened. The situation would be similar to occasions when disciplined safari vehicles
line up in Minneriya National Park to observe the Elephant Gathering.
Mobile phone calls had alerted the Mirissa Water Sport crew that boats ahead were
watching Blue Whales. We had close sightings of one or possibly two Blue Whales
feeding. The crew decided to stay with the lone whale that was feeding around us. It is
surprisingly hard to know whether you are seeing the same individual or more than one
as they dive and surface every 10-12 minutes at varying distances from the boat. We
watched other boats speeding away to the location of the pair of whales. We also had a
close encounter of a Bryde's Whale as a bonus. After things went quiet, almost two hours
later we set out to where the other boats were.
A pleasant surprise greeted me. Exactly 12 whale watching boats were strung out in a line
and two Blue Whales were feeding so close to the boats that they seemed to be rubbing
along the line of boats. The orderly line up was I suspect, more to do with location rather
than discipline or ethical whale watching. The whales were quite far out, on the shipping
lane. There was only one direction from which the whale watching boats could arrive. If
the first boat had seen the whale whilst it was heading out and the whales were beyond it,
the second and third boat to arrive would find it easier to stop beside the first boat and so
on. Later arrivals would not want to raise the ire of the whale watching line by attempting
to move onto the far side. The risk of encircling and scaring away the whales had been
avoided. Most of the boats had cut their engines and the whales were now treating the
whale watching boats no different to a line of fishing boats which they were used to.
They were clearly very relaxed and as they continued to engage in shallow feeding dives,
would surface very close to the line of boats. It was quite extraordinary to watch such a
47
close parallel to what happens with a line of safari vehicles in Minneriya National Park at
the Elephant Gathering when the vehicles are well behaved and the elephants
nonchalantly feed so close that you can hear them munching. Nigel Forbes, my friend
who had initiated this trip to the south of Sri Lanka said it was mind blowing to be so
close that you could hear the blow of the whales.
The two whales were feeding on the shipping lane where giant container ships which
could crush a whale, were cruising past. The fact that the whales were so relaxed and had
stayed near the boats for over two hours reaffirmed my conviction that the whales were
here because complex oceanic dynamics had resulted in a concentration of krill in this
area. It probably had little to do with the whales being chased to the shipping lanes. This
is not to say that there is no risk of the whales choosing to feed in the shipping lanes if
whale watching boats are irresponsible. It remains paramount that whale watching is
done responsibly. Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC, a charity registered in the
UK) supported by Sri Lankan (the airline) has been training local boat operators to reach
a ‘gold standard’ of conduct. My observations on this day reaffirmed my belief that even
if all boats behaved responsibly (or if no boats were out on a particular day), whales
would still elect to feed in the shipping lanes if the concentrations of the tiny krill they
feed on were in the sea lanes. This means that it would also be beneficial to lobby for a
‘go-slow’ speed reduction when ships pass this area of Sri Lanka. Studies in the USA
have shown that even modest speed reductions can have big impacts in reducing ship
strikes on whales.
A large container ship hove into view and came bruisingly close to a feeding blue whale.
The Blue Whale made no effort to alter direction, judging that the ship will pass it with a
few hundred feet of space. I was probably more alarmed than the whale. But animals
misjudge and a collision would be fatal. It was not clear if the two whales were of the
same sex, or a pair. There was no hint of what the relationship could be. I took many
photographs of them tail-fluking which I could share with Georgina Gemmell who is
running Wild Blue, a photo identification project on the Blue Whales off Sri Lanka. As of
December 2014, she had identified 81 unique individuals. There was no indication if the
two we were watching were two individuals who had just happened to converge to being
within a few feet of each other or whether there was some relationship between them. In
the absence of any special behaviour which I would like to record there was no reason to
suggest that the boat stayed out any longer as the passengers had a wonderful morning of
whale watching. So we agreed to turn back leaving the whales feeding in the shipping
lane, their future now inextricably tied with the expansion of a dominant species that now
pollutes their world with sound and toxins.
As we headed back to the harbour, I saw some white terns (a kind of seabird) flying
around a fishing boat. There were also a pair of brown terns in the air. I asked the boat to
divert whilst most passengers dozed off. I took some very close photographs of a pair of
Brown Noddies, a scarce pelagic visitor to Sri Lankan waters which very few birders
have seen. Good things come to those who look. When was the last time you saw a Red
Car?
Useful Links
48
Blue Whales in Sri Lanka
Wild Blue Information PDF
Flickr Page
Whale Watching Guide
Orcas in Sri Lanka Orca Project Sri Lanka Information PDF (v 2014.12.18)
Orca Sightings Log (V 2014.12.18)
Facebook Page
Flickr Page
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28. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2015). Blue Whales in Mirissa. Friends of Sri
Lanka Association Newsletter. UK. Winter 2014/15. Issued in January 2015.
Discusses why Blue Whales are found feeding close to Sri Lanka and in the shipping
lanes.
One of the notable features in Mirissa is the presence of Blue Whales close to shore. One
reason for this is the close proximity to the shoreline of deep water and nutrients. With
Mirissa and Kalpitiya the deep water is a result of the continental shelf being close. With
Trincomalee it is due to a submarine canyon system that cuts into shore.
There are two major physical drivers that influence the presence of nutrients close to
shore. Firstly, the impact of monsoons, especially the South-west Monsoon. Secondly,
the presence of 103 river systems which carry a lot of nutrients to the sea from a rich
organic surface. The monsoon winds push water away from the surface and sea water
from the bottom rises to fill the space vacated by the displaced water. This brings up
nutrients from the bottom, some of which is pushed close to the shore. The upwellings
create a periodic bloom of phytoplankton which in turn feeds the zooplankton that
includes krill. The presence of phytoplankton can be seen on remote sensing satellites.
The krill blooms in some parts of the planet are so vast they can be seen from space.
Some Blue Whales in the Indian Ocean seen off Sri Lanka are believed to engage in an
east to west migration to feed on the krill blooms which occur off the Horn of Africa and
the Bay of Bengal in alternate seasons. Sri Lanka may also benefit from the nutrient run
off from mainland India which is brought to its coastal waters by currents. The Blue
Whales and the Sperm Whales feeding off Sri Lanka may have their fate tied to the
fragile cloud forests that are important for maintaining Sri Lanka's rivers and nutrient
flows.
In May 2008 I began a media blitz that Sri Lanka was Best for Blue. There is now
concern that there are too many boats pursuing the whale in a stressful manner.
Irresponsible whale watching has two adverse impacts on whales. Firstly, stress from
being pursued by boats, and in some cases by boats approaching from multiple directions.
Secondly, from stress created by underwater noise from boat engines; this adds to the
background noise and makes it harder for whales to communicate with each other.
Animals that are subject to stress take evasive action to minimise the source of stress.
This could be a change in their feeding patterns in terms of time of day or their moving
away to other areas where food is available. The location of the krill that Blue Whales
feed on is influenced by complex physical and biological dynamics. It will not be easy to
isolate the effect of human induced stress and that of natural factors which may result in
whales moving to areas away from where they would otherwise have fed. The pictures
above were all taken on a visit in December 2014 and one of them shows a Blue Whale
that was nonchalantly feeding in the shipping lanes. It made no effort to change position
although a massive container ship passed it relatively close. At this stage it is still not
clear if the Blue Whales feeding in the shipping lines do so because the krill is sometimes
concentrated there or whether it is because of the activity of whale watching boats driving
50
them further away from shore. More study is required. Nevertheless, reduced shipping
lane speeds where Blue Whales are found off the South of Sri Lanka would help to
reduce fatal collisions with ships.
51
27. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2013). Courting Blue Whales and Sperm Whale Super-pods. Wildlife Worldwide. eJournal. 24 September 2013.
Encounters with courting Blue Whales and super-pods of Sperm Whales on a trip in April
2012 where the author visited all three of Sri Lanka’s whale watching triangle sites of
Mirissa, Kalpitiya and Trincomalee.
It was a travel brochure moment, blue skies, blue sea, blue whales, a warm sunny day in
the Indian Ocean, where the some of the whale watchers had stripped down to their
bikinis. I was next to skipper Ruwan Nishantha, having a man-chat, that is one in which
only a spartan exchange of words takes place, but is a shared moment of bonding, with a
lot of rapport-filled staring into space, in this case as if answers to our unspoken
questions will emerge from the calm of the ocean. Mirissa had on that morning in April
2012 lived up to its reputation. I had first publicised in May 2008 that Mirissa is the best
place in the world to see a Blue Whale. Since then almost all of seasons had logged an
encounter rate of 90 per cent or more. It was not yet 10am.Things had gone quiet after a
flurry of Blue Whale encounters and having had their fill, the other whale watching boats
had turned back. But Ruvan was keeping the boat out for me and we drifted with the
engines off, watching, waiting and listening and the thirty plus passengers enjoying some
quietness for introspection.
Suddenly there was a loud whoosh from the side of the boat. A Blue Whale had emerged
so close to the boat, I felt I could reach out stroke the giant. The gigantic Blue Whale
which would surely be out of fairy story if it was not so real. It was followed seconds
later by another Blue Whale and the ooohs and aaahs rang out from around the boat. The
first whale rolled its tail at an angle of 45 degrees and dragged it over the surface of the
water for and then slipped into the water. Ruwan and I exchanged looks. In man-chat
style, no words needed to be exchanged, just a knowing nod. Something special was
happening, something neither of had seen before. We stayed onto observe what may have
been the first documented observation in the Indian Ocean of flank formation behaviour
of Blue Whales. Michael Fishbach, Richard Sears and John Calombokidis have studied
Blue Whale behaviour off California. I learnt later from Michael that they believe it is the
female who initiates and leads from the front in this flank formation behaviour. Ah well,
a bit like the leopards in Yala, where I have seen female flirting with the males.
Fortunately for magazine editors, even men who don’t talk can write and a fuller article
on this worked its way into the January 2013 issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine.
With me that day was Ashan Seneviratne who had collected me for an early morning
dash from the commercial capital Colombo in the west for a morning’s whale watch in
the south. How many countries have a capital city where its citizens can choose between
a walk in the park or watching seasonal Blue Whales? Just 3 days later he was once again
driving me north of the capital to Kalpitiya, where Sperm Whales are just fifteen minutes
boat ride away on the Sperm Whale Strip between E 79 35 and E 79 39 (see Sunday
Times, Sri Lanka, 7 March 2010) . We had fixed the dates months before I flew down
from London and had arranged to go out in three boats to sweep the strip looking for
Sperm Whales. By a co-incidence a Sri Lanka Navy vessel broke the news a few days
52
earlier of a super-pod of Sperm Whales. This was later reliably estimated by observers
known to me to hold between 60-70 individuals. To put things into context, seeing a pod
of Sperm Whales over 25 is very special. This was a huge number to be seen together
(but rivalled by a larger super-pod in Trincomalee in March). We had two days or magic,
watching Sperm Whales at times swimming up to us and indulging their curiosity. I must
not forget the Bryde’s Whale which surfaced fairly unobtrusively close to us or the 250
plus pod of Spinner Dolphins.
On the boat with Ashan and me was our guest and friend Riaz Cader. One day I was
walking down Bermondsey Street in London and had just passed the shop ‘Lovely and
British’ when he zapped a particularly well timed text about a relative who had whale
watched in New Zealand off the famed Kaikoura. But he added that it’s just a few males
who are seen there and he added that they don’t seem to see the large pods seen off Sri
Lanka. This in itself is not unusual as it’s well known that the mature males live in high
latitudes (often solitarily or with hunting partners) and the breeding schools live in the
tropics. The well timed text, lodged itself firmly in my brain and it began to ruminate in
my mind. I began to wonder, if Sri Lanka is particularly special for Sperm Whale pods,
and if we will we ever get enough data to know one way or the other.
A few days after whale watching at Kalpitiya, with my wife and two daughters, we
trudged down the beach to go out to sea on a visit to Trincomalee, hosted by Chitral
Jayatilake of Cinnamon Trails from the Chaaya Blue, a John Keells Hotel. The sun was
yet to lift its orb over the eastern horizon and watched over by only an early rising pool
attendant, the quieter electric engines pushed us out to sea. Our destination was 35 km
out, from where a long submarine canyon thrust right into shore so that Blue Whales have
been seen by the pool-side of the Chaaya Blue. The submarine canyon results in the
nearby vantage of Swamy Rock the best shore-based observation point in the world for
Blue Whales. Our destination was determined by conversations I had held deep past
midnight (sometime men do talk) with Cinnamon Trails naturalist Buddika ‘Daya’
Dhayarathne. Over the next few days I compiled a lot of data which together with other
data and with tens of hours of further dialogue with marine biologists around the world
helped me to establish that Sri Lanka is the best chance to encounter a super-pod of
Sperm Whales on a commercial whale watch.
‘Daddy, I think they are watching us’, says Amali as the Sperm Whales spy hop. One or
two engage in ‘shark fin patrolling’, where they glide dragging a corner of the tail fluke
above the surface of the water, which looks like a shark’s fin out of the film ‘Jaws’. But
despite a seemingly menacing appearance they are playful females and perhaps a few
immature males. They are just a bunch of girls having a good time, playing peek a bo
with us and two fishermen out casting their nets. Suddenly, there is thunderous crash as
forty or more metric tonnes of Sperm Whales hurls out of the water and crashes down
hurling up a wall of water and white spray. Maybe a male from the high latitudes has
arrived and the girls are saying they are pleased to see him. The females will rush up to a
male and nuzzle up to him as shown in the picture taken by Flip Nicklin in the cover of
Hal Whitehead’s book, ‘Sperm Whales Social Evolution in the Ocean’.
53
I had toured the three sites of Mirissa, Kalpitiya and Trincomalee in Sri Lanka’s whale
watching triangle and I continued to Yala to be hosted by Anuruddha Bandara with
whose team we watched leopards out hunting and elephants padding silently by me
vehicle. A mere fourteen days in the field had produced sightings and images most
wildlife photographers would be happy get in a year. This further confirmed my view that
from a commercial perspective, Sri Lanka has a claim to be the best all round wildlife
destination in the world (see Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, 13 January 2013). The wildlife
intensive family holiday (a note of dissent, my wife and daughters are prone to challenge
if this qualified as a family holiday) was partly influenced by work on the book ‘Wild Sri
Lanka’, which was later published by John Beaufoy publishing in September 2013. In
this book, I bring together almost everything most wildlife travellers would like to know.
But I would like to repeat one tip. Although Sri Lanka is compact, using a specialist
wildlife tour operator allows you to leverage its good tourism infrastructure in the most
efficient way. You will see so much more on an organised trip, ideally accompanied by a
naturalist guide. Sri Lanka yet has only a relatively small number of skilled, all round
naturalists who are English speaking and licensed. These guides are usually the ones
booked by the specialist tour operators for their clients.
The tourism industry have engaged in a number of training workshops for guides on
wildlife. More recently, Sri Lankan (the airline) with Jetwing and John Keels (two big
destination management companies) have teamed with Whale and Dolphin Conservation
(WDC), a UK based charity to train whale watching guides and boat operators. There is
also an initiative supported by John Keells (and Cinnamon Trails) administered by Briton
Georgina Gemmell to build a photo identification database of Blue Whales and Orcas.
Already photo matches have been made and the future of public science looks exciting. It
is hoped that guides on whale watching boats will participate in these public science
initiatives.
Physical, evolutionary and human factors have resulted in Sri Lanka having a
combination of large land animals, fantastic whale watching, wildlife spectacles and
above normal biodiversity. Not surprisingly, the big game and wildlife spectacles like the
Elephant Gathering steal the spotlight. However, I would recommend to everyone
visiting this disproportionately wildlife-rich island to savour all it has to offer, from the
endemic dragonflies to the Sinharaja Bird Wave.
Useful links
Wild Sri Lanka (John Beaufoy Publishing), Sri Lankan Wildlife (Bradt Travel Guides,
Photographic Guides to Mammals and Birds (Bloomsbury) can be found on-line. See
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books/s?ie=UTF8&field-
author=Gehan%20de%20Silva%20Wijeyeratne&page=1&rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3
AGehan%20de%20Silva%20Wijeyeratne
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26. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2013). Trinco’s Blue Whales. May June 2013.
Living. Pages 98 - 99. Volume 8, Issue 4. ISSN 1800-0746.
Watching Blue Whales off Trincomalee in September and an explanation of why the
Northern Indian Ocean Blue Whales can be seen year-round off Sri Lankan waters.
Seven minutes out and boatman Jeyaraj yells out that a Blue Whale is ahead. A tall
column of water vapour, three storeys high hangs over the water before it is spirited away
by a strong breeze. Nature Trails naturalist Nilantha Kodituwakku and I had arrived from
Habarana to Trincomalee early that morning in search of Blue Whales. I wanted
additional first hand confirmation of the story I had published in September 2012 that the
whale watching season in Trincomalee extends from May to September with an 80%
encounter rate for either of Blue or Sperm Whale. We joined naturalist B. Dayarathne for
breakfast. Dayarathne had seen krill spilling out of the mouths of fish in the fish market.
He suggested that there may be a blooming of krill.
Sri Lanka's coastal waters are rich in nutrients throughout the year with 105 river systems
discharging organic nutrients. There are also other large scale oceanic processes at work.
Two alternating monsoons create strong ocean currents and up-wellings which bring up
nutrients from the ocean floor resulting in blooming of phytoplankton. Since the early
2000s, Indian scientists including P. Vinayachandran have been publishing papers on the
presence of chlorophyll around Sri Lanka based on data from the Indian Ocean Remote
Sensing Satellite (IRS-4). The phytoplankton is fed on by zooplankton which includes the
tiny krill fed on by the Blue Whale. On some days between January and March,
Dayarathne has seen the beach turn pink with the dead bodies of krill washed ashore. A
population of Blue Whales could potentially feed in these waters throughout the year but
would escape detection from whale watchers when the sea is seasonally rough. However,
year-round feeding can easily be tested by a ground observer using Swami Rock as a look
out. Swami Rock is the best shore-based location in the world for seeing Blue Whales. So
close to shore do Blue Whales come, that Nilantha in March 2012 gathered his colleagues
around the swimming pool to show them two.
The morning’s 'sailing' had been a welcome bonus on a field visit hosted by Nature
Trails arranged by Chitral Jayatilake, the head of Eco Tourism of John Keells Hotels. We
checked into the Cinnamon Lodge and were discussing plans for The Gathering with
Nilantha. Just then, the phone rang and Dayarathne reported a calm spell and the presence
of whales. Trincomalee and Minneriya-Kaudulla make it possible to see Blue Whales and
The Elephant Gathering within 24 hours.
There is a reason why Blue Whales are seen so close to shore from Trincomalee. A deep
submarine canyon cuts into the bay, creating one of the best natural deep water harbours
in the world. By 8.30am we were over the deepest length (N 08 37 225, E 81 17 841) of
the canyon. We are now about 4 nautical miles from our departure point on the beach (N
55
08 37 132, E 81 13 152). There may be physical processes which result in the krill being
concentrated around the deepest section leading to the Blue Whales being clustered there.
Unlike Sperm Whales, Blue Whales usually find the krill they feed on in the top 60
meters although they may dive deeper to 400 metres. A foul fishy stench had us wishing
we were somewhere else. But it was a good sign; the Blue Whales were feeding and one
had defecated. A path of red splotches like spilt luminescent paint spreading in the water
was another confirmation of feeding whales.
On one occasion we had five Blue Whales simultaneously spouting around the boat
within a quadrat of 1-2km, with three within half a kilometre of the boat. There were
probably more Blue Whales spread around. Over the next hour, at times, the nearer three
surfaced very close to the boat. The water was thick with sediment from river run off rich
in nutrients. The traditional view is that Blue Whales migrate between the tropics and
high latitudes. A view still prevails that the presence of whales all year round in Sri
Lanka is a mystery and that Sri Lanka’s Blue Whales cannot move to higher latitudes as
their path northwards is blocked by the Asian land mass. Not really. They don't need to
leave the tropical latitudes because of the abundant food chain created by the monsoons
in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. A hypothesis by Dr. Charles Anderson and
other suggests that some of the Blue Whales are migrating, within tropical latitudes in an
East-West fashion between up-wellings off the Horn of Africa in the Arabian Sea and the
Bay of Bengal.
The wind was picking up and the swell made it hard to see the whales even when they
surfaced near the boat. As Jeyaraj swung the boat around to head back, he shouted out. A
Blue Whale had been on the surface near the boat. It fluked-up perhaps just a hundred
feet away, as we left, closing a morning of Blue Whales.
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25. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2013). Whales of Sri Lanka. Wildlife
Worldwide. Issue 1, 2013. Pages 2-3.
An account of encounters with courting Blue Whales, breaching Sperm Whales in
Trincomalee and super-pods of Sperm Whales in Kalpitiya and Leopards in Yala on field
trips in April 2013.
A large mature female Sperm Whale rockets out of the water in a full body breach and
lands with a thunderous crash. I can almost hear the sound track from jaws when a female
Sperm Whale close to the boat ‘shark-fin patrols’ dragging a corner of it tail fluke along
the surface of the water. Heads pop out of the water around the water as they ‘spy hop’ to
watch us. Soon they are ‘scrumming’ a frenzied round of aquabatics as they turn the
surface into a foaming sheet of froth. My wife takes notes, and my two daughters operate
the video and take back up stills. Then next morning, I am alone with the Sperm Whales
as the research team has invoked a family holiday clause and mutinied, staying back at
the Chaaya Blu in Trincomalee for a lie-in, leisurely breakfast and swim. Ahhh just can’t
get the staff these days. A few days later I am with my friends Ashan and Riaz patrolling
the waters off the Kalpitiya Peninsula patrolling its Sperm Whale Strip (E79 35 to E79
38) for hunting Sperm Whales. On two successive days we catch up with a tail end of a
super-pod, numbering at least 50. Still less than the super pod in Trincomalee which in
March 2012 had numbers estimated between 100 to 200.
Sri Lanka has a strong claim to be the best all-round wildlife destination in the world. No
other country has so much terrestrial Big Game and large marine mammals, endemic
biodiversity and tourism infrastructure in such a compact and varied landscape. The best
way to illustrate this is to continue my ‘real travel’ story of a family holiday in April
2012 where I only had a mere 14 days in the field to pack in things which not long ago
people would have thought would need a lifetime. Time in Trincomalee and Kalpitiya
followed by dialogue with scientists established that Sri Lanka is the best chance for a
super-pod of Sperm Whales on a commercial whale watch. A few days later, once again
with Ashan I was on the Southern Expressway to a story established in May 2008, that
Sri Lanka was best for Blue Whale, with a 90% encounter rate. Blue Whales turned up
predictable easily and there was a sudden lull with thoughts of heading back to shore.
Suddenly it happened. One Blue Whale surfaced within touching distance of the boat and
side-fluked dragging a corner of its tail above the eater to be followed by another Blue
Whale. I learnt later that this was flank-formation behaviour with the female in front. We
were treated to some rarely observed courtship behaviour which turned into a ‘Tales from
the Field’ in the January 2013 issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine.
In Yala National Park, I faced another family mutiny as the family stay back to have an
easy evening at the Mahoora Luxury Tented Camp. I come back with tales of the leopard
that belly crawled behind scanty thorn scrub to stalk a deer. The next day the family get
their share of leopards and elephants including a tusker which intimidated us. I pause to
photograph a Common Indian Crow butterfly that is wafting pheromones with its hair
pencils everted and we miss the Sloth Bear that walked through the camp. Ouch. At
Talangama Wetland, just half an hour’s drive from the capital city, I photograph endemic
dragonflies as endemic Purple-faced Leaf Monkeys issue challenges to rivals. Sri Lanka
57
also has the longest studied and biggest bird wave in Sinharaja and the largest recurrent
concentration of wild elephants. They were not a part of my family holiday in April, but
on a dedicated wildlife itinerary it is also possible in the right season to take most of the
wildlife highlights within a 14 day span.
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24. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2013). Fluke encounter. BBC Wildlife
Magazine, January 2013. Volume 31, Number 1. Page122. ISSN 9770265365169.
The first documented sighting of Blue Whale courtship off Southern Sri Lanka involving
rarely observed behaviors including flank formation, pectoral rolls and trumpeting
(bubbling).
The excited chatter from the whale watchers had died down. Mirissa, in the South of Sri
Lanka had delivered one Blue Whale after another. Some close, some far, some fluked,
others just slipped into the sea after one feeding dive into another. The Blue Whale is the
biggest animal that has ever lived on the planet and had been one of the hardest to see. In
May 2008, I publicised Mirissa as the best place in the work to see it with an encounter
rate of over ninety per cent. It has since become one of the easiest animals to see. Too
easy in fact and on this sailing I was only adding to the thousands of images I already
had, in the hope that the images will help researchers with photo identification of
individuals. The joy of going into the field is that something unexpected can happen.
Today was an ‘ordinary’ day with lots of Blue Whales. Nothing special. Not even a close
fly-by from a Shearwater skimming the waves to have the adrenalin racing and my
camera gunning away.
A lull in Blue Whale sightings enveloped and thoughts drifted away. Suddenly a loud
whoosh came from port-side as compressed air was reunited with the atmosphere.
Without photographs to constrain memory, I could have later remembered it as a moment
where I could have leant over and run my fingers along the whale’s back. Oohs and
aaahhs rang out around the boat, but I have had these encounters before, so I went for a
close up dorsal picture for photo id. Then something different happened. The Blue Whale
brought the tail up and instead of fluking in a regular fashion it rolled the tail flukes on its
side, and held them aloft and dragged them sideways and eventually into the water. A
side-fluke! I exchanged looks with the Ruvan, the skipper of the Mirissa Water Sports
boat. He has had over 500 sailings and we both knew something special had happened.
Another loud whoosh and another Blue Whale surfaced beside boat behind the first
whale. This was going to be more than special. The first whale in front side-fluked again.
They both dived together and one emerged on the starboard side. A bubbling sound we
had never heard before came from it as it spewed (trumpeted) a fountain head of water
from its blow hole by lying just under the water. It did a slow belly roll, showing its
pectoral flippers. It side-fluked again. Another surfaced and the pair, oh so close to the
boat, breathed in and out noisily, water plumes billowing into the air and drowning the
rising excited chatter on the boat.
They both slipped under the water and shortly one re-surfaced and on star-board and lay
listlessly for at least half an hour. The other hung back about 200m away and eventually
slipped out of sight. The minutes ticked by and the star-board whale just lay there, several
hundred metric tonnes of whale, as long as our boat, just lying there. “Do you think they
are doing it?” an English woman asked me part curious, part hopeful that she was witness
to the biggest sex act in the known universe. A crew member asked if a pregnant female
had done the side-fluking because of discomfort with the baby. Another asked if a
59
pregnant female was about to deliver a baby. No one really knew. I thought we were
observing courtship, but if so I could not be sure which one was the male in any of the
special behaviour we had seen. For example, in Sperm Whales, counter-intuitively to us,
it is the females who make the spectacular breaching displays, when a male visits.
As I was to discover later the scientific literature is thin on Blue Whale courtship and
some of the behaviour I was observing had not been seen even by scientists who had been
studying Blue Whales for decades. Michael Fishbach has had made thousands of
approaches to Blue Whales over 20 years in the St. Lawrence River of Quebec, Canada,
the Sea of Cortez off Baja California, Mexico and to a limited extent the Azores Islands,
Portugal. He read my notes and viewed the video footage. He also discussed it with
Richard Sears, another leading Blue Whale expert. I learnt that it was probably the female
who was leading in the front with the side-fluking behaviour. Sears had observed the full
range of behaviour before. But the rarity of what we observed is evident from the fact
that Fishbach with so many thousands of field hours had not seen some of the behaviour
we had captured on video. For example, pectoral rolls and trumpeting during courtship.
Although Fishbach had observed flank formations hundreds of times, he said he had
never seen a pair moving so slowly or one rolling whilst in flank formation.
Skipper Ruvan told me that in the last 2-3 weeks, they had seen what had seemed like
three pairs of adults together. Usually Blue Whales are solitary unless it’s a mother and
calf. We were out in late April, at the tail end of the season. According to the hypothesis
of Dr. Charles Anderson, most of these whales will soon be heading to the Arabian Sea,
off the Horn of Africa. Why has no one observed this flank formation behaviour before in
Sri Lanka? Are the Blues becoming more habituated like the leopards if Yala or is this
the time courtship (assuming it is courtship) begins and were we just lucky with the
weather?
The other boats had turned back much earlier satisfied with a morning full of Blue
Whales. Ruvan had kept the boat and its passengers for an extra hour and a half for me as
we watched a range of behaviour not seen off these waters before. The sun beat down
relentlessly and fatigue seeped into previously elated spirits. Anxiety etched faces of tour
leaders of groups who had to flights to catch later in the day. Ruvan asked if we could
head back to shore. I nodded my assent and watched the star-board whale slip into the
water as the engine coughed into life.
Ashan Seneviratne, my host from Little Adventures had driven me down the newly
finished Southern Expressway from the capital Colombo for a day trip to whale watch on
a Sunday morning. We would have never imagined any of this. I suspect Mirissa will be
key to understand the breeding biology of our biggest co-occupant of this planet.
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23. de Silva Wijeyeratne. G. (2012). Sri Lanka Best Chance for Sperm Whale Super-pods. Sunday Times: Sri Lanka. Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 05 August
2012. Features. Page 6.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120805/plus/sri-lanka-best-chance-for-sperm-whale-super-
pods-7800.html
The article which publicised that Sri Lanka is the best chance for seeing a super-pod of
Sperm Whales on a commercial whale watch. It also clarifies confusion in the literature
which suggests that it is not unusual to see thousands of Sperm Whales together. The
article explains why on the contrary seeing a pod of just 40 is very special.
It seemed that all of Sri Lanka’s top stories on whale watching of international
significance had already been broken. But I can now announce another: Sri Lanka is the
best chance in the world for seeing a super-pod of sperm whales on a commercial whale
watch. Super-pods of whales and dolphins (cetaceans) form occasionally when smaller
pods gather into larger super-pods for feeding or socialising.
Sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales, are the largest toothed predators on the
planet. The males are larger than females and can grow to over 20 metres in length and
weigh over 50 metric tonnes. They are the elephants of the sea with complex social
structures with different social groups having different dialects or codas. This species has
fascinated people for centuries and sperm whales have been the focus of some of the
most celebrated literary works such as Hermann Melville’s Moby Dick and to this day,
entire books are centred on them. A good example is Leviathan, or The Whale, by Philip
Hoare, a past speaker at the Galle Literary festival, whose book won The Samuel Johnson
Prize for non-fiction in 2008. There is an enormous fascination and intellectual appetite
for sperm whales all over the world. Yet, so far, no country has made the claim that it
offers the best chance for seeing a super-pod of sperm whales.
I began researching in earnest the theory that Sri Lanka is the best chance for sperm
whale super pods following two field engagements in April 2012. The first was hosted by
Chaaya Blu in Trincomalee. Three weeks after a super-pod had been seen in mid March,
I went to sea with my wife Nirma, daughters Maya and Amali and a friend, Tilak Conrad.
We were able to record on stills and video a spectacular display of surface behaviour by
sperm whales off Trincomalee. A few days earlier, at Kalpitiya, on a visit hosted by Little
Adventures and Bay Watch Eco Resort Village, on two consecutive days, Ashan
Seneviratne, Riaz Cader and I caught up with the tail-end of a super-pod of 50 sperm
whales. Cader, incidentally, had questioned me previously why I was not publicising the
super-pods for tourism. The answer was that firstly, there was little data at that time on
numbers and the encounter rate. Secondly, I was a little confused with the literature and
was not sure if the super-pods seen off Sri Lanka were internationally-significant. In
some of the older books on whale watching and even now in an internet search, one will
come up with references and claims to thousands of sperm whales being together. If it
was true that sightings of thousands of sperm whales is not unheard of, Sri Lanka could
not be so special.
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To understand exactly how special Sri Lanka’s super-pods might be, I knew I had to
contact both Mark Carwardine, the best-known popular whale watching writer and tour
leader and Hal Whitehead, the international authority on sperm whales. My article for Hi
Magazine in June 2012 had a tight publishing deadline and I did not have a reply from
Carwardine in time. But Whitehead had emailed me to say that pods of 40-plus sperm
whales are common in the Pacific. So, I then announced a view that Sri Lanka may be the
best chance outside the Pacific to see a super-pod. But this did not seem right as I could
not find any first-hand accounts of people on commercial whale watching trips
encountering super-pods in the Pacific. Later, I was able to obtain further clarification
from Whitehead. He emailed me on 16th June 2012 to comment “There is very little
commercial sperm whale watching in the Pacific, to my knowledge. With most places in
the Pacific that I know of, the whales are far at sea and so not easily accessible. But the
Sea of Cortez is fantastic, but there is only a little commercial whale-watching that I am
aware of”.
This was preceded by an email from Mark Carwardine who wrote ‘These super-pods in
Sri Lanka sound very exciting. The only time I have ever seen more than 40 sperm
whales together in a single pod was once in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, when I counted
51. They really aren't very common at all”. The two comments by Carwardine and
Whitehead are very strongly suggestive that Sri Lanka’s super-pods are special and such
numbers are not regularly encountered on commercial whale watching elsewhere in the
world.
To see pods of sperm whales, one has to travel to tropical destinations such as the Azores,
Dominica and Baja California, where the ‘breeding schools’ are found. The higher
latitudes tend to have resident males. In dialogue with whale watching companies, marine
mammal tour leaders, photographers, writers and researchers, I gained further
reinforcement or assurance that pods in these countries rarely exceed 20. For example,
Dylan Walker, co-founder of www.planetwhale.com, co-founder of the Whale Festival in
the UK and the author of two books on whale watching emailed me his comments on 23
June 2012. He wrote “Seeing 40 sperm whales sounds like a lot for a commercial whale
watching trip. All the places I can think of generally see less”.
Contrast that with Sri Lanka where between March and April 2012, Sri Lanka had 9 days
when sperm whale super-pods of over 40 individuals were recorded. These were the 6th
April 2012 in Mirissa, 20th - 23rd March 2012 (inclusive) in Trincomalee (estimates
varying from 60 to 200) and 14th - 17th April, 2012 (inclusive) in Kalpitiya. More
details are in the June 2012 issue of Hi magazine. If seeing a pod of 40 plus sperm whales
is remarkable, why are there confusing references as mentioned above to thousands of
sperm whales? The answer may lie in a confusion being introduced when information is
quoted from Whitehead’s seminal book ‘Sperm Whales: Social Evolution in the Ocean’.
In Chapter 6.1, he describes ‘concentrations’ whereby, during large scale surveys, sperm
whales are encountered in patches of a few hundred kilometres and ‘aggregations’ within
concentrations which span 10-20 kilometres across. Whitehead, using his South Pacific
data, estimates that approximately 750 sperm whales may be found in a concentration
spanning 300km. I suspect it is such estimates over large spatial scales in the scientific
62
literature which has led to references in the popular whale watching literature to
thousands of sperm whales being together or being seen together.
However, co-ordinated movement of animals is at the social scale of a ‘group’. Groups
are defined as animals moving together in a coordinated fashion over periods of at least
hours. These groups are the same as ‘pods’ to whale watchers, that is, what a whale
watcher can see around them in their field of view. Table 6.1 in Whitehead’s book lists
mean sizes of groups from various studies. The mean pod sizes listed range from 18 to
29.8. This does not contradict the feedback from whale watching professionals that the
pods seen off Sri Lanka of 40-plus are special.
I hope I have explained the confusion over the myth on the internet and in the older
books about sperm whales in their thousands and reconciled it to the different scales
employed by scientists versus professional whale watchers whose spatial scale is the
immediate field of view.
It is clear that seeing a pod of over 40 on a commercial whale watch is very special. Since
the publication of the article in Hi Magazine, I also received data from marine biologist
Ranil Nanayakkara of super-pods he has encountered between March 2010 and May
2011. Four additional super-pods recorded by Nanayakkara include one off Mullaitivu
(24 May 2010) as well as the sites referred to earlier off Trincomalee (9 May 2011),
Kalpitiya (11 March 2010) and Mirissa (19 March 2011). Furthermore, between January
2010 and December 2011, naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu has recorded a further four
pods of over 40 sperm whales off Mirissa including two (29 January 2010 and 24 April
2011) which had over 50. Therefore, between January 2010 and April 2012, Sri Lanka
had 17 super-pod days of over 40 sperm whales.
Based on the available data, it appears that Sri Lanka is the best chance in the world for
seeing a super-pod of sperm whales on a commercial whale watching trip. However, note
that I use the word chance, as sightings are unpredictable. As more and more people
become attuned to the sperm whales off Kalpitiya and Trincomalee, the number of sperm
whale ‘super-pod days’ recorded off Sri Lanka will increase. But sperm whale super-
pods will remain a chance event. It is also important to realise that no claim is being
made that Sri Lanka is the most reliable location for seeing sperm whales. Film crews
with limited time may opt for a location like Kaikoura with its resident males, or the
smaller pods encountered frequently off the Azores and Dominica. If the currently
limited commercial whale watching for sperm whales takes off in the Sea of Cortez, that
location could become a contender to be the best chance for a sperm whale super-pod.
However, for film crews with a bigger budget in terms of film crew days, Sri Lanka at
present seems the best chance for a super-pod. With or without film crews, the island
now has another big wildlife story for the print media.
The sperm whale super-pods are a tool in the island’s media armoury to gain millions of
dollars of free publicity. Positive brand publicity attaching to Sri Lanka through its sperm
whale super-pods could have a wide economic impact. For example, Britain attracts the
most Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of countries in Europe. Interestingly, according to
63
the 2011 UK Attractiveness Survey by Big Four accountancy firm Ernst and Young,
quality of life and culture are considered key determinants for Britain out-competing
other European countries. ‘Quality of life’ signals from whale watching in the beautiful
Indian Ocean leading to potential FDI benefits, should add further impetus for Sri Lanka
to conserve its whales and dolphins and encourage their viewing through regulated,
responsible whale watching.
Acknowledgements
The opinions expressed here are mine and not necessarily shared or supported by any of
the people who shared information, scientific papers or field data. These include Hal
Whitehead, Mark Carwardine, Dylan Walker, Ian Rowlands, Andrea Steffen, Andrew
and Carla Armour, Amos Nachoum, Andrew Sutton, Charles Anderson, Rohan
Pethiyagoda and Jonathan Gordon. People who shared sightings data and/or assisted me
in the field include Anoma Alagiyawadu, Riaz Cader, B. Dayarathne, Chitral Jayatilake,
Nilantha Kodithuwakku, Maithri Liyanage, Ashan Seneviratne and Ranil Nanayakkara.
Vanessa Williams-Grey of WDCS copy edited and gave critical feedback to improve this
article. Hal Whitehead and Nicola Hodgins (WDCS) very kindly read the final draft. My
field trips have been hosted by Bay Watch Eco Resort Village, Barr Reef Resort
(previously Alankuda Beach), Chaaya Blu, Dolphin Beach, Jetwing Eco Holidays,
Jetwing Lighthouse, Little Adventures, Mirissa Water Sports and Nature Trails.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The article above was published in the Sunday Times as cited earlier. The full version
above was subject to trimming for reasons of editorial style and space.
The article elicited feedback lending further credence to the story that Sri Lanka is best
for Sperm Whale super-pods. Extracts of some of the feedback are quoted below.
Tony Wu (Underwater Photographer) wrote on 8th August 2012.
“I have seen groups of up to 20 or so animals in Japanese waters, but never up to 40-50 as
you report. I talked with my friends who pioneered the sperm whale watching industry in
Ogasawara, Japan, where I photographed the sperm whales eating giant squid. They have
been observing sperm whales since the mid-90s in that area, and are probably the most
experienced sperm whale people in Japan.
They confirmed that they have only seen up to around 20 animals in a given group,
though there have been larger aggregations spread out over a much bigger area, as you
referenced in Hal Whitehead's writing.
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I personally have spent a lot of time over the past 12 years in the water with sperm
whales, but I don't look for sperm whales all the time. So I think this statement from my
friends in Ogasawara is much more valuable”.
Michael Fishbach (Great Whale Conservancy) wrote on 5th August 2012.
“I think I can clarify what you wrote about the Sea of Cortez and sperm whales. During
my blue whale work there over the past 18 years the biggest pod of sperm whales I have
encountered is an estimated 70. Amazing and unforgettable are two words I can
associate with that encounter.
This is not in the area where Hal Whitehead works each year. In that area where Hal
works super-pods of sperm whales are common in the winter months. However the
geographical location of that area makes it impossible for commercial whale watching
operations to access it. Commercial whale watching in the Sea of Cortez is not a
common thing in many areas and probably to the joy of the researchers who work with
these super-pods of the Sea of Cortez they pretty much have the place to themselves.
All this reinforces your claim as far as I know that it sure sounds as if Sri Lanka might be
the best place on earth to have the chance to see super-pods of Sperm Whales on a
commercial whale watch”.
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22. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2012). June 2012. A Guide to Sperm Whale Behaviour and Sri Lanka’s Super Pods. Hi Magazine. Series 10, Volume 1.
Pages 167 – 170.
A guide to over fifteen types of surface behavior and an examination of the Sperm Whale
super pods seen off Sri Lanka.
We were heading east and gliding along one of the flattest seas I had ever seen. I was not
in a boat that was hitting hard against a resistant sea nor did I have to talk loudly over the
scream of engines. Chitral Jayatilake had told me about the 40 hp engines they had
purchased for whale watching. They used Electronic Fuel Injection for efficiency and
were quieter. I was impressed. I could talk to people comfortably when pointing out
pelagic seabirds like Bridled Terns. The powerful outboard engine was quietly lapping up
the nautical miles as we travelled to a coordinate I had selected about 20 nm (35 km) east.
Before long, the eagle-eyed Jeyaraj had spotted Spinner Dolphins. But we did not linger
long as I was concerned that a long search awaited us. B. Dayarathne, the Nature Trails
naturalist resident at Chaaya Blu had warned me that sightings of Blue and Sperm
Whales had dropped sharply at the end of March. It was now the 19th of April 2012.
‘Sometimes the sea is flat as a mirror’ I had been told the previous evening by Lankesha
Ponnamperuma the Resident Manager of Chaaya Blu. I am not used to seas like that but I
could not complain at being presented with one. A Blue Whale had been seen the
previous day. It was a few nautical miles away from the area where in March 2012 a
super pod of Sperm Whales had been sighted engaging in breaching behaviour. Sperm
Whales have complex social lives which are reminiscent to that of elephants.
The oceanic topography around Trincomalee is dominated by a deep submarine canyon
which cuts into Trincomalee bay creating its famous deep natural harbour. As a result in
March for example, Blue Whales can be seen easily from Swamy Rock or on a few rare
occasions even from the pool-side of Chaaya Blu. But outside the peak period for whales,
I did not have a straightforward search zone as in the ‘Sperm Whale Strip’ (E 79 35 to
E79 38) off the Kalpitiya Peninsula. I had stayed up till midnight with ‘Daya’ and
discussed the recent sightings and chosen an area where the depth was about a kilometre
deep. On the boat, I was checking the GPS and the copies of the admiralty charts which
despite a lamination had sprung a leak and were now wet at the edges.
I directed Jeyaraj to my second pre-designated stop and motioned him to stop. In
addition to my wife Nirma and my children Maya and Amali, we also had with us Tilak
Conrad. He was suitably astonished with my ‘go to the whales’ navigational skills when
within ten seconds, Jeyaraj spotted a distant blow. We had found Sperm Whales. With
hardly an effort, the powerful engine closed the gap and Jeyaraj let the boat drift parallel
to a pod of 20 Sperm Whales which were logging. Over the next hour we watched an
array of amazing Sperm Whale behaviour which I was able to catch on camera. To avoid
disturbance to the Sperm Whales, we stayed in the same place and did not race up to any
whales we observed breaching. This is also safer.
66
The group of Sperm Whales I photographed also milled around a fishing boat which
came close to us. As neither boat made an attempt to pursue the Sperm Whales, they were
natural in their behaviour.
In this article using words to complement the images, I will explain over fifteen elements
of the Sperm Whales’ behavioural repertoire, much of which was observed on the first
day. I have also thrown in a few other topics. Especially the question as to whether Sri
Lanka may be the best chance in the world for encountering a super pod of Sperm
Whales. As this article attempts to inform a popular audience but with sufficient details
for the more technically-minded, I have also provided references in a style which is
midway between popular and technical writing.
Belly-up
A distant image I have shows a Sperm Whale with a lot of white on its lower jaw lying
on its back close to four Sperm Whales (although the cropped image shows fewer
whales). This is behaviour I had not seen before but whales are known to perform belly-
ups during bouts of social behaviour. It is believed that females may also do this to avoid
the unwanted attention of a male. What was photographed may well be an older female
interacting with a mixed age group. However, it is possible that this was a male as male
Sperm Whales are believed to go piebald with age. Both males and females do belly-ups
for different reasons.
Blow (Spout)
Whales blow or spout when they are exhaling after a dive. Sperm Whale blows are low
and bushy. Their single blowhole is positioned slightly to the left and forward facing
which results in a characteristic, low and forward facing blow.
Breaching, Lunging and Sexual Dimorphism
Breaching which is shown in the photographs here is when a substantial part of the
whale’s body leaves the water. A ‘lunge’ is when only a small part of the body leaves the
water. We did observe a few lunges as well. Hal Whitehead, the leading authority on
Sperm Whales, has observed that breaching and spy hopping by females increase in the
presence of visiting males.
Sperm Whales show what scientists call sexual dimorphism which is a way of saying the
sexes look physically different. A mature bull Sperm Whale can be a third bigger than a
female and their dorsal fin is more towards the back. One of the breaching Sperm Whales
was clearly bigger. But was it a mature male or a mature female which looks much bigger
in the company of younger whales? Mature males are also known to go piebald with age
and one breaching whale shows distinct pale lining of the lower jaw and pale patches on
its skin. This whale may have been a male and it is possible that some of the other
breaches were by receptive females signalling to males with breaches and spy hops. But
as size is so hard to gauge in the field, I cannot be certain.
In the images I have, there is no visible scarring on the heads which one would expect
from mature males who would show the scars of old battles. This again suggests that
67
some of the whales seen breaching may have been females. This ties in with what is
written by Hal Whitehead in his classic book ‘Sperm Whales Social Evolution in the
Sea’. He does not believe that male Sperm Whales breach as part of courtship behaviour.
This is interesting especially as it is counter intuitive to most field naturalists.
Chorus line
Sometimes, when hunting for food, whales and dolphins arrange themselves along
parallel lines forming waves of the animals. I have not included a picture of this
behaviour as on this day, the whales were not actively feeding and did not form a chorus
line. At times, hunting Sperm Whales I have observed off the Kalpitiya Peninsula,
stretched the chorus line across a few nautical miles.
Elephants of the Sea
Sperm Whales are highly intelligent social animals. They are the elephants of the sea
with complex social structures. They communicate using clicks which form dialects
sometimes specific to groups. The only animals I have found more curious than Leopard
cubs are Sperm Whales. My three best encounters with Sperm Whales have all been
when I have been with children on a small boat. In April 2012 in Kalpitiya I was with
Ashan Seneviratnne and Riaz Cader when we observed a Sperm Whale resting next to a
boat with two children. I have wondered whether these highly intelligent animals feel that
they are less at risk from a boat which has children. Are they old enough to remember
that the whaling boats that hunted them did not have children? Or are they just more
curious about boats with a mixed age pod of humans? On that same day in Kalpitiya on
16 April 2012 we also observed a Sperm Whale almost nudge a boat which had only
adults. Child friendly Sperm Whales have the makings of a nice story but it may not be
true. Maybe these intelligent and curious animals know that boats in Sri Lanka don't
mean any harm. If whale watching is handled responsibly from small boats, it would be
wonderful if Sperm Whales and boats continue to interact closely like the famous Grey
Whales in Baja California which come up to boats for the people to scratch them.
Head Raise
I have on many occasions had Sperm Whales swimming up to the boat and lifting up
their heads in what I call a ‘head raise’. In a ‘head raise’ the body remains horizontal,
unlike with spy hopping where the body is in a vertical position. The eyes are not above
the water in this posture and I am not sure if there is a visual benefit. I wonder whether
the Sperm Whale is actually using the head raised position to fire an echo locating beam
of sonar through the air to better profile the boat and its occupants. Can they gauge the
number and age/size classes of the boat's occupants?
Head-stand and Fluking
Whales may lift their tails out of the water and hold them suspended aloft in what is
described as a Head-stand (or Tail Extension in some of the North American literature,
for example see www.whaletrust.org). The Sperm Whale in the photograph held its tail
aloft and then rotated 45 degrees. This was clearly a very different behaviour to ‘fluking’,
which is when they bring their tail flukes up before a deep dive, usually for feeding.
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On this day I observed only a few flukings as the pod was not feeding. But the pod had
been feeding earlier as we got the fishy smell of whale excrement as we first approached
them. I see Sperm Whales fluking very frequently when I encounter feeding pods. The
Europeans use the term fluking and the North Americans describe it as ‘fluke up’ (e.g.
see the 1991 paper by Hal Whitehead). The picture shows a Head-stand, but if you did
not see the behaviour, it would look like fluking. Note however, when fluking, the Sperm
Whales does not usually lift the tail stock that much out of the water.
Jaw Clapping
Sperm Whales and other whales lift their heads out of the water and clap their jaws,
showing their teeth. I was not able to photograph this, as a single jaw clap happened very
fast. But the whale was so close to the boat that Nirma was able to see the teeth on the
lower jaw with her naked eyes. The jaw clap was done by one whale to the others. It was
clearly a signal to the other whales as the boat was being completely ignored.
Lobtailing (Tail slapping)
Whales and dolphins slap the water for what is believed to be a number of reasons
varying from aggression, excitement to stunning prey. Tail slapping by large whales is
referred to as lobtailing. We had Sperm Whales lobtailing five times. On one occasion
one gave a double slap. The other times it was a single slap. Large whales have been
observed to give several slaps when lobtailing.
Logging (or rafting)
Sperm Whales are often seen in groups floating like logs on the water. This rest position
is logging or rafting. Logging is defined as one in which the whales do not show forward
movement. When they are travelling, the bodies will be on the surface similar to logging,
except that they will have a strong directional movement.
Photo identification and Calluses
To study the behaviour of any animal it is useful to identify individuals uniquely. With
whales, a combination of characteristics is used; mainly patterns on their tail flukes and
dorsal fins as a secondary characteristic. The calluses on the dorsal fins of Sperm Whales
are believed to occur on older females.
Roll-over
The accompanying image is extremely rare showing a roll-over where the whale rotates
through 360 degrees bringing the pectoral fins into view. The pectorals are the side
flippers. We observed at least two roll-overs on the day, but they can happen quite fast
and be missed. On 13th April 2012, in Mirissa I also photographed Blue Whales bringing
their pectorals into view by turning over on their sides. They did not do a full and fast
roll-over as we saw with the Sperm Whales.
Scrumming and Socialising
I call this ‘scrumming’ in the absence of established terminology. For a couple of
minutes, the water near the boat turned to a frothing mass as four of five Sperm Whales
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rushed into each other and writhed in the water like they were in a Rugby scrum. Was it a
bunch of females and immatures rushing to greet a male as described in Hal Whitehead’s
book? Or was it females and young interacting in what Hal Whitehead describes as
‘socialising’? It’s possible that one of the interactions I saw was that of a female showing
acceptance to a male as she barrel-rolled along on her longitudinal axis. At this stage I
cannot be certain. During this ‘scrumming’ which lasted only about two minutes, I also
noticed that one whale was head down with its tail vertically out of the water whilst
another was in a near vertical position with its head up. It could have been courtship but
as the sizes were not distinctly different, it could have been a form of social bonding.
Side-fluking
This is where the triangular tip of a tail fluke is raised above the water and is dragged
along. If I describe it as ‘shark fin patrolling’ it will convey a better image as the term
‘side-fluking’ gives a more static impression of a tail fluke merely sticking out of the
water sideways. At Trincomalee we observed side-fluking a few times. On two occasions
the whales did it close to the boat and it felt like a scene out of ‘Jaws’ with a shark
stalking the boat. On 13th April 2012 I photographed a Blue Whale side-fluking off
Mirissa. The term side-fluking is explained in the 1993 paper by Hal Whitehead which I
have listed in the references.
Spy hopping
Spy hopping is when the whale brings its body into a vertical position with the head out
of the water. It is thought that this allows them to have a better view of what is on the
surface; for example with Orcas scanning for seals on ice floes. Although I have had
Sperm Whales swim up to my boat and raise their heads regularly, I have only seen them
spy hopping like this quite rarely. Furthermore they were doing it a lot and on one
occasion we counted 7 Sperm Whales taking it in turn to spy hop. Either the spy hopping
was a part of a behavioural ritual or they wanted to look at us more critically. I cannot be
sure what exactly was going on but Hal Whitehead has noted that more spy hopping takes
place when mature male Sperm Whales visit pods of females and sub-adults.
Super Pods
Whales and dolphins are sociable animals living in pods of varying sizes. Sperm Whales
are typically found in groups or pods of less than 25 individuals. When different pods
come together for feeding or other reasons, super pods form. I use the term pod which is
in popular use and its meaning is similar to what Hal Whitehead in his book describes as
a ‘group’, which refers to a group of Sperm Whales moving in a coordinated fashion.
Is Sri Lanka the best chance for a Sperm Whale Super Pod outside the Pacific?
[Note. This section of the article is superseded by an article published in the Sunday
Times (Sri Lanka) which published the claim by the author that Sri Lanka is the best
chance for seeing a Sperm Whale super-pod on a commercial whale watch].
I understand from Hal Whitehead that it is common in the Pacific to encounter pods of 40
or more Sperm Whales. Outside of the Pacific, the top Sperm Whale locations don’t seem
to report super pods or at least not regularly as far I can ascertain at present. Therefore
70
what may be special about Sri Lanka is that it may be the best location outside the Pacific
for Sperm Whale super pods and hence the opportunity to observe amazing behaviour.
Also, the super pods can be seen by people on commercial whale watching half-day trips.
However it should be noted that there are places in the world such as Kaikoura in New
Zealand and the Azores that have a more reliable encounter rate for Sperm Whales than
Sri Lanka. These rely on a few resident adults as in Kaikoura or small pods ranging from
3 to 20 whales.
Where are the Super Pods seen?
All three locations in Sri Lanka’s Whale Watching Triangle have reported super pods. On
6th April 2012 in Mirissa, on 20,21,22 and 23 March 2012 in Trincomalee and on 14,15,
16, and 17 April 2012 in Kalpitiya, super pods of Sperm Whales were encountered on a
total of nine days. I encountered my first super pod off Mirissa with author and feminist
Germaine Greer on 31 January 2009. She exclaimed that the sea was covered with
whales. Sri Lanka’s potential for Sperm Whale super pods is just beginning to gain
attention. I suspect the presence of super pods off Kalpitiya and Trincomalee are often
missed because hardly anyone has been going out to find them. As more attention is paid
to Sri Lanka’s Sperm Whale super pods, more data will arise. Together with more data
being collected and as I ask more questions from international researchers and whale
watching professionals, I will gain a better perspective of how Sri Lanka compares with
other sites.
The Trincomalee Super Pod
How many Sperm Whales were there in Trincomalee’s super pod in March 2012?
Wildlife photographer Amos Nachoum estimated around 60-80. Andrea Steffen who has
studied Sperm Whales off Dominica estimated over a hundred. Nature Trails naturalists
Nilantha Kodithuwakku and B. Dayarathne estimated between 200-250. A conservative
estimate would still place it at around 100. Not long after, there was a reliable count of 50
Sperm Whales off Kalpitiya on 16 April 2012 by Maithri Liyanage on a day when
myself, Ashan Seneviratne and Riaz Cader caught up with the tail end of the super pod
that had splintered and commenced feeding in ‘chorus lines’. So little is known about the
movement of Sperm Whales around Sri Lanka; we do not know whether the super pod
seen off Kalpitiya included some of the whales seen off Trincomalee.
Super Pod Days
To help collect more data I have coined the term ‘Super Pod Day’ to indicate when 30 or
more Sperm Whales were observed together. Between January and April 2012, 9 super
pod days were recorded off Sri Lanka with 1 from Mirissa, 4 each from Trincomalee and
Kalpitiya. The Super Pod Days from Trincomalee and Kalpitiya were on continuous days
from the same super pod. ‘Super Pod Days’ will hopefully provide a simple metric for
future collection of whale watching data.
Logistics and Support
Chitral Jayatilake (Head of EcoTourism) at John Keells Hotels and his colleagues very
kindly arranged for me and my family to be hosted at Chaaya Blu. Chaaya Blu also
71
sponsored the boat and fuel for two trips to sea. Naturalist B. Dayarathne shared recent
data with me which made it easier to locate the Sperm Whales. Boatman Jeyaraj (who
had benefitted from the 300 man hours spent at sea with photographer Amos Nachoum)
exercised skill and patience in allowing the Sperm Whales to approach us. Nirma, Maya
and Amali helped with data recording and video and stills to document the behavioural
activity. They were patient with family time being used for whale watching research.
The opinions and speculations expressed in this article are mine and not necessarily
shared or supported by anyone else who answered questions, read drafts or who provided
information. Tara Wikramanayake copy edited the article. Vanessa Williams-Grey and
Nicola Hodgins of WDCS commented on drafts. Rohan Pethiyagoda and Jonathan
Gordon furnished scientific papers. A number of people answered questions including B.
Dayarathne, Nilantha Kodithuwakku, Chitral Jayatilake, Andrea Steffen, Amos
Nachoum, Hal Whitehead, Andrew and Carla Armour, Andrew Sutton, Ian Rowlands,
Ashan Seneviratne, Riaz Cader, Anoma Alagiyawadu and Charles Anderson. Riaz Cader
was one of the first to urge me to look at the story-worthiness of the Sperm Whales super
pods which occur in Sri Lanka.
References
Cresswell, C., Walker, D. and T. Pusser (2007). Whales & Dolphins of the North
American Pacific. Wild Guides Ltd: UK. 216 pages. ISBN 978-1-903657-05-8.
Gordon J.C.D. (1987). Sperm whale groups and social behaviour observed off Sri Lanka.
Rep. Int. Whal. Commn 37:205-217.
Whitehead, H. and L. S. Weilgart. (1991). Patterns of visually observable behaviour and
vocalizations in groups of female sperm whales. Behaviour 118: 275-296.
Whitehead, H. (1993). The behaviour of mature male sperm whales on the Galapagos
breeding grounds. Canadian Journal of Zoology 71: 689-699.
Whitehead, H. (2003). Sperm Whales Social Evolution in the Ocean. The University of
Chicago Press. 431pages. ISBN 978-0-226-89518-5.
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21. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2012). Do elephants and whales predict tsunamis? The Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 06 May 2012. Features. Page 3.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120506/Plus/plus_06.html
An investigation into claims that whales responded to seismic activity before a Tsunami
alert on 11th April 2012.
The agitated bull elephant with tusks was seemingly leading me and my family to safety
away from the sea and from a possible tsunami. It was 7.20am, several hours before a
tsunami alert was issued at 2.30pm on 11th April 2012 by the Pacific Tsunami Warning
Center. I was on a game drive with my wife Nirma and children Maya and Amali as
guests of Mahoora who operate luxury tented safaris. The Mahoora driver Priyantha and I
had never seen anything like this before. The agitated tusker emerged mysteriously from
a grassy plain onto the road and solemnly marched in front of the vehicle leading us
along Meda Para, away from the low lying Gonalabbe Plain and the sea beyond it. The
task completed, it disappeared into the thorn scrub. We later heard of a leopard with a cub
on a tree near the Buttuwa Spill. After a camp breakfast and checking out, we went
looking for them on our way out. As we turned into the spill road, on the Buttuwa Plains,
not far from the sea, Nirma pointed out two bull elephants. One had its trunk curled in its
mouth and an aggressive encounter seemed to be in the making. They were far away and
we went unsuccessfully in search of the mother and cub. At 1.10pm, the two bull
elephants were feeding close to each other amicably. Looking back, I can ask whether the
two bulls had given up their aggression and had been united by a common fear as they
had sensed impending danger by picking up seismic tremors using the Pacinian
corpuscles; layers of nerves on the soles of their feet. Big cats can also sense ground
tremors using the pads on their feet. Had mother and cub fled a potential tsunami? Was
the mother old enough to have experienced the 2004 tsunami when the sea swept into the
park where low lying areas were next to the sea?
With a touch of imagination, I had two or possibly three story worthy ‘animal tsunami
warning’ stories that morning. But I knew that none of them were credible stories of
animals sensing an impending tsunami; however, I brought them up to illustrate the
dangers of post event associations. The elephant that led us to safety was a bull in musth.
I could see it and smell the secretions. Elephants occasionally stride along a road. The
two bull elephants seemingly bonded by a common danger were probably still warily
sizing each other up, unconcerned by any seismic tremors they were picking up or
oblivious to any. Leopards and their cubs don’t necessarily stay on a tree from morning to
evening. After the tragic boxing day tsunami of 26th December 2004, a story went
worldwide that the animals in Yala National Park has escaped the tsunami. I was
probably the key source of reference for this story.
In an open release article which was circulated widely in February 2005, I outlined
several possible reasons why animals survived and humans perished during the boxing
day tsunami of 26th December 2004. I won’t repeat them here but in this article I will
discuss briefly two connections made between the seismic tremors off Indonesia which
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registered a magnitude of 8.6 on that day and cetaceans (whales and dolphins) in Sri
Lankan waters.
The first relates to an observation by British photographer Andrew Sutton that at 1.15pm
Sri Lankan time, all cetaceans vanished. The Guardian, a British newspaper on their
website carried a story on the 15th April 2012 linking this to the earthquake and in its
headline asked the question whether whales can predict tsunamis. At a conceptual level, I
am comfortable with the notion that Blue Whales in particular may have picked up long
waves emanating from seismic activity. Blue Whales are believed to use long waves to
communicate across a few thousand kilometres. Did some seismic activity off Indonesia
give rise to whales picking up a danger signal around 1.15pm in Sri Lanka? Perhaps
someone can examine the seismic data picked up by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
to see if there is any corroboration. On my part, I enquired to see if anyone else who had
been at sea could corroborate this. My first call was to Anoma Alagiyawadu the naturalist
of Jetwing Lighthouse who was on his 531st whale watch. He had not noticed anything
unusual. But this does not invalidate the photographer’s observation as he had come
ashore well before 1.00pm and for the first time he was in a helicopter and not in a boat.
The observations are not comparable. I then enquired with A.H. Ruvan Nishantha, the
skipper of Mirissa Water Sports, who has even more whale watching sailings. He had
come ashore at 12.00 noon and not observed any unusual behaviour. But as they were not
in the water at 1.15pm, it does not contradict or support the observation. But it seems that
around 2 hours before the 1.15pm observation, we had two experienced observers one at
sea, the other in the air, not detecting any unusual behaviour. Meanwhile, 5 minutes
before the photographer’s observation, I was observing two elephants close enough to the
sea to be at risk from a tsunami, but despite their built in seismic detectors, showing no
sign of panic and not having moved location for an hour. Although I have dwelled on the
elephants, after the December 2004 tsunami I could not locate any witnesses who had
seen elephants moving rapidly away from the sea before it struck. A study of radio
collared elephants by Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando found no evidence of elephants
anticipating the tsunami and moving away to safety.
Sutton was photographing and not recording data as a researcher and therefore his
sightings log is a simple list of species numbers seen on a day. He estimated that they
were 5 miles south of Dondra. The continental shelf is closest to Sri Lanka at Dondra and
at this distance the depth would have been sufficient for whales and boats to be safe. The
harbour authorities asked the boats in Mirissa to put out to sea to protect them from
potential tsunami damage. Skippers such as Ruvan Nishantha took their boats 3 nautical
miles out to sea, a depth shallower than the depth 5 miles South of Dondra. So why did
the whales and dolphins in deeper water evacuate the seas around Dondra? How did the
dolphins which do not use long waves for long distance communication pick this up?
How is this mysterious disappearance any different from the seas emptying of whales and
dolphins which I experience on almost every whale watching trip? Whether it is
cetaceans or leopards, there are intervals with no animals whose timing and length appear
to be random. There are no convincing answers at this stage. However, Andrew Sutton
has many years of experience with filming and photographing cetaceans. So perhaps this
observation should be made note of in case someone else can find conclusive
corroborating accounts.
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The second whale and seismic connection arose soon after a press release from the Sri
Lanka Navy which stated ‘Sri Lanka Navy is pleased to convey the spectacular sighting
of sperm whales thronging the scenic Kalpitiya seas. Naval craft attached to SLNS Vijaya
of the North-Western Naval Command on routine patrol at 8.30 am on 14th April
detected a large number of whales frolicking in multiple pods at a distance of 3 nautical
miles west of the Bar Reef’. Subsequently, there were many accounts on TV, print media,
social media and this paper, the Sunday Times (Sunday 22nd April 2012) suggesting a
link with the large number of Sperm Whales seen off Kalpitiya and the seismic activity
off Indonesia. It will not be easy to prove that there is no link. But I would suggest that
this was a coincidence. On Sunday 7th March 2010, the Sunday Times carried an article
by me announcing Kalpitiya as a whale watching hot spot and the presence of Sperm
Whales, a 15 minutes speed boat ride away from shore. The Hi Magazine of October
2011 carried another article on the Sperm Whales of Kalpitiya based on more field work
in April 2011. In March 2012, Ashan Seneviratne of Little Adventures liaised with
several resort owners in Kalpitiya to join me, him and Riaz Cader to search for Sperm
Whales for the third consecutive year. Two days before our scheduled sea searches on
16th and 17th April, the navy came across the large pod of Sperm Whales, with estimated
numbers ranging over 100. Maithri Liyanage, the owner of Ruwala Resort independently
encountered the Sperm Whales and saw them on four consecutive days. Since the huge
awareness created by this encounter of Sperm Whales by several boats, sightings almost
on a daily basis continued until the seas turned rough in the last week of April.
The sightings by the navy and by many boats subsequently have been around the 400m
depth isobath. This lies between E 79 35 and E 79 38 but comes closer around
Kandakuliya and the Bar Reef. I have since 2010 publicised this as one of the top ten
Sperm Whale watching locations in the world and the mere presence of Sperm Whales is
not unusual. Neither is this area shallow as has been suggested by some accounts in the
print media and social media. As I explained in my article of March 2010, oil and gas
exploration off Kalpitiya Peninsula resulted in depth data which showed that close to
shore is deep water and that this had not been recorded before, despite a widespread
misconception that the British admiralty charts recorded the depth contours accurately.
If the presence of Sperm Whales off Kalpitiya is not unusual, can the large numbers
recorded this year be attributed to the seismic activity? I suspect that as Kalpitiya
develops into a Sperm Whale watching hot spot, other large pods will be seen. On the
16th and 17th April, Seneviratne, Cader and I failed to locate the large pod. However,
Maithri Liyanage whom I established as a reliable counter when at sea with him, had a
pod of 50 and we caught up with 17 of the tail end of this feeding pod who were
travelling South, in what I suspect is a north-south alternating feeding sweep. The larger
estimates may be true as a larger pod could have split into smaller pods. Sperm Whales
are known to congregate in hundreds, even thousands. According to Chaaya Blue
naturalist Dayarathne, between 7th and 29th March 2012, Sperm Whales were seen off
Trincomalee and the maximum count on a day was between 200 to 250. When I found
them on the 19th and 20th of April 2012 off Trincomalee, the super pod was no longer
present and my maximum count was 20. In Mirissa too, Sperm Whales are regularly seen
although pods are usually in the range of 10-30. The presence of Sperm Whales or large
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numbers of them off Kalptitiya is not necessarily unusual enough to invoke a seismic
connection as they have occurred elsewhere off Sri Lanka in large numbers without
needing a seismic explanation. But the dynamics of their movements remain a mystery in
the absence of good field data.
Much as I would like to believe in whales and elephants foretelling tsunamis, so far I am
unable to find conclusive evidence from Sri Lanka from the recent events in April 2012.
If it were true, it would be a powerful story. Irrespective of where the truth lies, April
2012 marks a turning point in the consciousness of the average Sri Lankan to the
presence of the largest toothed animal in the planet being found off their shores.
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20. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2012). Pelagic Seabirds of Kalpitiya. Tales from the field. Hi Magazine. April 2012. Series 9, Volume 6. Pages 178-180.
Watching rare pelagic seabirds off the Kalpitiya Peninsula.
KEY FACTS
The sea off the Kalpitiya Peninsula (between E79 38 and E79 35) is one of the
best places in Asia to see rarely seen pelagic seabirds.
This area is in the top ten sites in the world for seeing Sperm Whales.
The pelagic seabirds and sperm whales are seen in the same strip of sea around
the 400m depth isoclines.
The best time for rarely seen pelagic seabirds is just before the onset of the South-
west Monsoon, from the end of March to the first two weeks of April. When the
seas become too rough, shore-based watching may yield pelagic seabirds that are
blown in under stormy conditions.
I gestured with my hand and Neil Wasantha swung round the boat to give chase. The
scream of the outboard engine at full throttle was deafening and waves, that had been
gentle until now, were now hitting the boat like hammers. I spied a bird a short distance
away which had broken away from a mixed flock; I suspected it was a Persian
Shearwater. I wanted a record shot to demonstrate that it had been recorded for a second
successive year off Kalpitiya. My suspicion is that it is a regular pelagic off Kalpitiya at
this time of year but its absence in ornithological records is due to a lack of trained
observers on these seas at the right time. Shearwaters fly gracefully, skimming the waves,
lending the impression of no great effort to fly and barely making any speed. In reality,
they are travelling at over 30 kilometres per hour. It was getting away, comfortably
outpacing us. To the relief of my wife Nirma and daughters Maya and Amali, I called off
the bone rattling chase. The Shearwater probably did not even notice our efforts to catch
up. As I had hoped, there were more of them and I was able to photograph the species for
a second successive year.
For the avoidance of doubt, I should clarify something for my readers. I may ask a
boatman to give a short high speed parallel chase to a seabird already flying at great
speed, to take a record shot if it is an important ornithological record. But I avoid
approaching seabirds resting on the water at speed or in a way that it would cause stress
and force them to break their rest. Especially with marine mammals, any boatmen I travel
with receive strict instructions not to bear down on them and to stay at a distance which is
comfortable to the animals. It is always better to let the animals approach you. I find that
both mammals and seabirds will drift in towards a boat if you keep a distance.
In May 2010, based on field work between March and April 2010 and access to data
hitherto not in the public domain, I published articles in the Hi Magazine and Sunday
Times. In them, I gave the first credible and accurate public exposition that the
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continental shelf is close to and runs parallel to the Kalpitiya Peninsula. I pointed out that
it will take the 16 footer boats equipped with 25 horsepower outboard engines less than
15 minutes to reach the Sperm Whale line, the 300 to 400m depth isoclines along which
Sperm Whales are seen feeding and travelling on a North-South orientation. I had written
that to see and photograph rare seabirds and whales, one should run a boat along the lines
of longitude between East 079 38 and East 079 35. Between these two lines is a distance
of 3 nautical miles (38-35 = 3). This is just under 6 kilometres as 1 nautical mile is
1.852km.
This strip I have referred to above is very rich in marine life due to a combination of
factors. The sea floor dips sharply here; as with many eco-systems, the ‘edge effect’
results in species richness. But there is more to it. This area where shallow water meets
deep water results in a churning of nutrients from the depths below which rise to the top
creating a food chain. The area off the Kalpitiya Peninsula may also benefit from the
nutrients discharged into the sea from the Puttalam Lagoon, one of the largest lagoons in
the island. It may also benefit from nutrients brought in from the Indian mainland by
currents. There are clearly vast amounts of organic nutrients along this coastline which
support a large food chain. The closeness of the deep water to the shore also means deep
water species are more likely to be seen; this includes the Spinner Dolphins which come
inshore of the reef to sleep during the day.
In April 2011, once again I found this zone to be the right strike zone for whales and
pelagics. As I had hoped, I once again managed to see and get very close to rarely seen
pelagic birds. I came away with some of the best photographs taken of rare pelagics in Sri
Lankan waters. I am sure that in the future, others who read my articles and follow the E
79 35 to E 79 38 zone at sea will also come away with images which are just as good if
not better.
SEABIRDS
Pomarine Skua
Pomarine Skuas are seen as the South-west Monsoon approaches. On sailings from
Mirissa with Dr. Charles Anderson, I have seen as many as twenty in a flock. However,
single individuals are more likely to be seen. The bird in the photograph was a juvenile
which was floating on a block of rigifoam. I looked on as it interacted with two adults,
possibly its parents; this was the closest I have ever gotten to a Pomarine Skua. Quite
often from both Mirissa and Kalpitiya, I have found floating debris to have seabirds
resting on them. If a series of floating buoys are placed on the E 79 38 line, it would
make it very easy to observe scarce pelagics as they would use the buoys to rest.
Brown Noddy
A friend of mine who had been studying seabirds told me that after several years he had
only managed a distant view of a Noddy. From Mirissa, I have had a few sightings of
Noddies. But because flocks of Terns move much faster than the larger whale watching
boats, I have never been able to get a good photograph. In contrast, in Kalpitiya, I have
found them floating on the water or perched on debris. In April 2010, Riaz Cader and I
even had a Lesser Noddy attempting to land on the canopy of our boat. On 21st April
2011, I came across sea bird flocks with Bridled Terns and Little Terns having a few
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Brown Noddies amongst them. At one time, I photographed three Brown Noddies
floating together on the water. I also came across singles floating on the water and
another on a piece of rigifoam.
Wedge-tailed Shearwater
Shearwaters are symbolic of the open oceans. They skim the surface of the water with a
grace which gives no hint at the speed at which they are travelling. They fly at over
30kmph and I have found it hard to keep pace with them even with the powerful 16
footer speed boats operated by Barr Reef Resort (a.k.a. Alankuda) and Dolphin Beach.
The Shearwaters arrive just ahead of the South-west Monsoon. Unless bad weather forces
them close to shore, they are hardly ever seen by land based birdwatchers. In April 2011,
I came across a few mixed flocks of seabirds which held one or more dark Shearwaters.
They seemed to be mainly Wedge-tailed Shearwaters although it is possible I may have
missed a Flesh-footed Shearwater with my focus on photographing rather than
identifying the birds.
Persian Shearwater
On two occasions in April 2011, I came across Persian Shearwaters in mixed flocks
where there seemed to be only one or two at the most. In contrast, in April 2010 I found
one flock which held 35 Persian Shearwaters. My photographs taken in April 2010 were
probably the first high quality photographs taken of them in Sri Lankan waters as these
birds have been rarely seen. But I am sure when more and more birdwatchers hire boats
to run North-South transects between the E 79 35 and E 79 38 lines of longitude, many
hitherto scarcely seen pelagics will be seen and photographed.
Other Seabirds
In the accounts above, I have focussed on rarely seen seabirds that I encountered on one
trip in April 2011. However many other seabirds can be seen off the Kalpitiya Peninsula.
Hunting along the coastlines are Gull-billed Terns. Lesser Crested and Large Crested
Terns are often seen in mixed tern flocks which have Gull-billed as well as Little Terns
and less frequently Common Terns. I often see flocks of Little Terns in the food rich
areas between E 79 35 and E 79 38. On the beach you may see Whiskered and White-
winged Black Terns. Both species are migrant marsh terns and are rarely seen over the
sea. However, flocks of White-winged Black Terns form flocks which feed at sea off
Mirissa at the tail end of the migration. There are a few records of exhausted Sooty Terns
landing on the beach. I photographed one on 20th May 2010 at Kandakuliya. Bridled
Terns are pelagic birds seasonally seen in good numbers. Unless there is bad weather,
they rarely venture close to shore. The area between E 79 35 and E 79 38 also seems to
be one of the best places for seeing Lesser and Brown Noddies, two more species of dark
terns. Most observers have found them hard to find whereas I have even had a Lesser
Noddy attempting to land on my boat.
A Long-tailed Skua was photographed by me and Riaz Cader on 11th April 2010. This
could in time be confirmed as the second record of this species in Sri Lanka. In April
2010 I also had a flock of over 35 Persian Shearwaters. The Persian Shearwaters I
recorded on this trip may be the third record from Sri Lanka although this is yet to be
confirmed. Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed Shearwaters also join some of the mixed
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species seabird feeding flocks. I have had glimpses of Petrels but not been able to identify
them. On 15th January 2012, Riaz Cader who has accompanied me on my research trips
off Kalpitiya, went out to sea and photographed a rarely recorded Brown Booby. This
adds further confirmation to my claim that one of the easiest places in Asia in which to
see rare pelagic seabirds are the seas off the Kalpitiya Peninsula.
SPERM WHALES AND OTHER MARINE MAMMALS
The seas off Kalpitiya Peninsula are probably amongst the top ten locations in the world
for seeing Sperm Whales. Kalpitiya has an advantage that the pelagic seabirds and Sperm
Whales are both seen in the same location. This is in a band which is approximately the E
79 35 to E 79 38. In sites such as Kaikoura off New Zealand, bird watchers will often not
see Sperm Whales as whale watching is carried out further off shore in deeper water. In
Kalpitiya, the birds and the whales are both seen roughly following a North-south axis
along the 400m depth isocline which is rich in food. I have seen a Blue Whale only once
off Kalpitiya. At present it is not clear as to why Blue Whales are rarely seen off
Kalpitiya. Spinner Dolphins are the most common cetacean off the peninsula; they are
usually seen inshore of the reef on the Dolphin Line (closer to shore than the Sperm
Whale Line) where they are resting during the day. In the early days, the few scattered
observations of whales came from people dolphin watching who had unwittingly crossed
over the reef to the Sperm Whale Line. Other cetaceans seen off the Kalpitiya Peninsula
include Bryde’s Whale, Minke Whale, Dwarf Sperm Whale, Melon-headed Whale, Orca,
Short-finned Pilot Whale, Risso’s Dolphin, Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin, Bottlenose
Dolphin and Pantropical Spotted Dolphin. This list is based on my observations and that
of others, which have either been published or where I have had photographs made
available to me. More species will be recorded as more skilled observers start watching
cetaceans off Kalpitiya. This area also seems to be the best site in Sri Lanka for Orca with
at least one or two records each year. It would be interesting to photo ID these Orcas to
establish whether it is the same individual or individuals which are visiting.
LOGISTICS
In this article, I have written short accounts of some of these rarely seen seabirds together
with photographs taken between the 20th and 22nd April 2011. My field research on this
trip was supported by Dallas Martenstyn and his co-investors at Kalpitiya. As usual, I
headed out to sea with three tanks of fuel and two GPS units. During my field work in
April 2011, with my family, I occupied a tented room at Dolphin Beach
(www.dolphinbeach.lk). Jetwing Eco holidays (www.jetwingeco.com) provided transport
with naturalist chauffeur guide Lakshman Senanayake who was expert at picking out rare
seabirds floating on the water. Going out to sea is expensive as even 14 footer boats are
expensive to run. On my trips I may run a boat for 7 hours a day and my hosts incur a
significant expense in fuel for the boats. My efforts to publicise whale watching and
pelagic bird watching off Kalpitiya would not have been possible without the support of
Dolphin Beach and on my earlier trips the support of Bar Reef Resort
(www.barreefresort.com, previously Alankuda Beach).
Support from others include Tara Wikramanayake who assists with copy editing of many
of my articles which arise from my marine and other trips. Georgina Gemmell copy
edited the first draft of this article followed by Tara.
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RESPONSIBLE WHALE AND DOLPHIN WATCHING
The same common sense rules apply to almost all animals if you wish to enjoy an
extended and possibly close sighting. Never bear down rapidly on any animal at any
angle. Even an animal used to people and vehicles will take fright. Don’t approach
marine mammals head on or from behind. Dolphins may choose to bow ride but are
unlikely to do so if you chase them.
Don’t chase whales from behind for a rear view ‘tail shot’. You are not so special for a
boat crew to make an exception for bad behaviour. It’s best to approach whales and
dolphins in parallel and keeping at a distance comfortable to them (around 100m or
more). If you cut the engine off and observe them, whales may at times swim up to the
boat for a closer look. Many animals are curious and will approach you. They may then
dive away from you giving the rear view ‘tail shot’ popular in books.
Whales and dolphins in Sri Lanka’s three key whale watching sites are very used to
fishing boats and ships. The author has observed Blue Whales surfacing a few meters
away from a fishing boat and had Sperm Whales swimming up to his boat. The decision
to get close has to be theirs. Do not follow them for an extended period as they are not
used to being followed. Furthermore, boat noise will stress them as they rely on sensitive
hearing for communication and with some species for hunting.
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19. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). An Englishwoman in Blue Whale Country. The Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 16 October 2011. Features. Page 8.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/111016/Plus/plus_16.html
The role of an Englishwoman in launching whale watching in Sri Lanka.
Post publication summary
The article below explains the stages involved in bringing the ‘story to market’
that Sri Lanka is Best for Blue Whale
It identifies the author’s role as a ‘connector’, bringing together people and
marrying science with commerce.
It identifies the importance of ‘ground truthing’ a story, the importance of data
collection and making a sighting log publicly available for all interested parties.
It identifies the importance of engaging the media with a credible story.
It demonstrates how an individual with a flair for science and commerce can
make a big difference in getting a story out if connected to the right people be is
scientists, ground operators or volunteers.
It is an early example of the importance of the ‘Three Es’, the Encounter Rate, the
Encounter Time (season) and Encounter Zone.
It demonstrates the use of a tag line ‘Best for Blue Whale’ to help commercial
operators and media have a hook they can use.
Making information public and using a dramatic and credible tag line, enabled
others who were interested in in developing whale watching in their own efforts.
The Original Article
The story that I broke in May 2008 that Southern Sri Lanka is the best place in the world
for Blue Whales had a varied cast of supporting characters. One of them was an
Englishwoman who had fallen in love with the island. Sue Evans first visited Sri Lanka in
the 1980s and in 2002 bought a bungalow at Polwatta Modera near Mirissa. A few
months before the Boxing Day Tsunami (26 December 2004), she took up residence with
her husband Simon Scarff. After the Tsunami, because of her background as a marketing
professional, the charity, Build A Future Foundation, sought her help as a volunteer, with
one of their projects. They had provided eleven
Tsunami affected fishing youth with a 54 footer boat and two sailing dinghies. One day, I
received an email from her about the planned leisure sailing activities of Mirissa Water
Sports (MWS).
How Simon Scarff with MWS photographed Blue Whales on one of their sailings in
April 2006 and Sue Evans communicated this sighting to me is a story I have written in
my previous articles and I will not repeat it here. If I may move the story forward, on the
1st of April 2008, I set out with MWS on my first sailing. At that time, very few people in
Sri Lanka knew of Dr. Charles Anderson and his hypothesis of a migration of Blue
Whales skirting the South coast of Sri Lanka in an East-West migration. I suspected that I
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was on to a big story at a time when no one had publicly made a compelling case in the
media for Mirissa being an international whale watching hot spot. However, Southern Sri
Lanka’s potential for watching Blue Whales had been brought to my attention as much as
five years earlier by Dr. Charles Anderson in August 2003. Sue Evans and Simon Scarff
were on my first sailing with MWS, when after about half an hour we came across our
first whales.
‘Blue Whales’ announced the crew triumphantly. I was not so sure; they looked different.
They were actually Sperm Whales. But the inability of anyone on board that day to tell
apart Sperm and Blue Whales demonstrated how little most people knew as of April
2008. I was one of the first few to even bother with details such as whether a large whale
in sight was a Blue Whale or a Sperm Whale. We went back to Sue’s house and I
processed my Canon digital RAW files and consulted my books. I showed that we had
seen and photographed both Blue and Sperm Whales close to shore, in a series of
encounters. I was terribly excited. I was sure that if I ran more field trips and the results
held, I could put Mirissa on the international map for Blue Whales. There was one snag:
the cost. The boat charter at that time, was Rs 30,000 and we had taken it at a special rate
of Rs 20,000. Even at the reduced rate, there was no way I could justify my team using
Jetwing Eco Holidays money to research and develop Sri Lanka’s branding as a whale
watching hot spot. I suggested that they offer me the terms which I had agreed with safari
jeep operator Mola, when I marketed Yala as one of the top sites in the world for seeing
and photographing leopards. Back then, I simply paid for the diesel, about Rs 500 a day.
For the boat it would cost about Rs 3,000 for the diesel for several hours at sea.
I then rather dramatically told the crew to take a good look at me. Because, I said, if they
did not agree, they will never see me again. But if they agreed to my proposal, I said I
will know by the end of the month, whether I can put Mirissa on the world map.
I set off further South with the team of Jetwing Eco Holidays naturalist guides, leaving
behind a rather perplexed crew of fishing youth. They had not quite understood the
collaboration I had proposed. It seemed risky. Sue Evans explained again to them that I
had taken the story of the Sri Lankan Leopard in Yala and The Gathering of Elephants to
the world. She reassured them that I will deliver my promise if the facts supported it. She
advised them to accept my offer. They were to provide the boat and crew. Jetwing Eco
Holidays would pay for the diesel and make a compelling case to brand Mirissa for whale
watching. The fishing youth were in a dilemma. An Englishwoman and a corporate
personality from the capital, were suggesting a strange new arrangement. They needed
time to think it over. Later in the evening, Ruwan, the crew’s skipper phoned me. They
had accepted. The advice of Sue Evans, the Englishwoman who had helped them before,
had influenced their decision. The boat was in play.
Having explored the seas off Kirinda and taken a quick look at the leopards in Yala, we
raced back for what became a series of exploratory trips. These were often accompanied
by print and TV media. This continued into the 2008/2009 season when media such as Hi
magazine joined me in search of whales and data. There were days when I had the entire
boat and crew all to myself, just for the cost of diesel.
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If it were not for this agreement brokered by Sue Evans for a special ‘diesel only’ rate,
the ‘Best for Blue Whale’ story would not have gone out in May 2008. Furthermore, it is
possible that the fishing youth may have gone on to other work. They were struggling to
take bookings. I also suspect the efforts by Walkers Tours and the Ceylon Fishery
Harbours Corporation may have faltered. They began to sail from Galle which entails at
least two hours sailing each way to reach the edge of the continental shelf South of
Mirissa. Based on our data, it was clear that their strike rate would be very poor if four
hours sailing time was needed to get to and back from the search zone from which
another 2-4 hours may be needed on most days. Without my media blitz and if they also
had a poor strike rate with uncomfortably long access times, it would have been difficult
to sustain as a commercial product. Also without the media blitz, they would not have
had a compelling case to make to clients and the tour operators. When they began, they
too were not aware of Dr. Anderson and his hypothesis. As with previous efforts by
others to start whale watching, it may have faded away.
However, Chitral Jayathilake from Walkers Tours and I were in regular dialogue. With
the data I was sharing, he changed the strategy of the sailings for the next season by
switching to Mirissa from Galle. My media blitz ensured that there were enough
bookings in the next season (2008/2009) to sustain more than two whale watching boats.
By 2011 this has grown to half a dozen.
Evans on our first trip quite nonchalantly pulled out an Admiralty Chart. This was
nothing special for someone like her who was a sailor. I don’t think she had any inkling
what a huge impact this would have on my ability to convince the media, tour operators
and the world at large. For decades I had walked trails all over the world using Ordnance
Survey maps and their equivalent. But not having a nautical background I had no idea
that members of the public in Sri Lanka could buy the Admiralty Charts used on ships. I
had gone out to sea many times looking for whales without Admiralty Charts. In fact
three years after I broke the story, many engaged in whale watching in 2010/11, still don't
own or take out Admiralty Charts to sea. On that first sailing with Evans when she
unrolled ‘Admiralty Chart No 813 Colombo to Sangamankanda Point’, I was
gobsmacked. As an avid map reader, I could visualise immediately how the sea floor
dropped away.
It was obvious that an effort to sail from Galle to whale watch was not going to be
productive. The edge of the continental shelf is just too far way from Galle. It pinches in
close to the South of Dondra. This was not new information. Indeed, some years earlier
Charles Anderson had pin-pointed the area near Dondra as the most likely place to watch
Blue Whales after consulting Admiralty Charts. But now using the Admiralty Charts, it
was so much easier for me to explain to media, clients and tour operators why it made
sense to sail from Mirissa. I was also struck immediately how clumsy my previous efforts
had been. Without Admiralty Charts you are running blind. With them, you can look for
the edge of the shelf where shallow water meets deep water and churning takes place,
creating a food web and at the same time allowing a secure depth of water for large
whales. With the depth contours on the Admiralty Charts, it was easy to connect the
Anderson hypothesis of the East West migration of the Blue Whales and how they were
skirting along the edge of the shelf. Evans had the details of a local company (Marine
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Overseas Agency) which was an agent for the British Admiralty Charts. We wasted no
time in buying them, laminating them and taking them out to sea.
When I first called Evans to arrange the first sailing with MWS, she explained that my
team would need to negotiate directly with MWS for a rate. I was not obliged to invite
her to join us. But I knew she had worked hard to introduce MWS to the travel industry.
She had also asked the crew to maintain a log of whale sightings on the boat and on the
web after their first encounter. I was glad that I had invited her to join my first trip with
MWS. In addition to persuading the crew to have confidence in me, she introduced me to
a useful tool, the Admiralty Charts. A seemingly trivial thing but one I used with great
effect to make a compelling case with the media. I later used depth charts with another
Anderson insight. This led me to demonstrate in 2010 that the seas off Kalpitiya
Peninsula is Sri Lanka’s third whale watching hot spot.
The publicity I gave for the whale watching bore fruit because of the strong take up by
the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and the parallel efforts of Walkers Tours to
launch whale watching with the Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation. But in my mind,
the birth of a sustainable whale watching industry founded on credible data is a story
which was set in motion by a foreign philanthropist, a coalition of Tsunami affected
fishing youth, a British marine scientist, a data collecting hotel naturalist and me
connected by an English volunteer Sue Evans. My flair to publicise a story authenticated
by field work and framed by a commercial agenda may not have happened if not for an
Englishwoman in Blue Whale country. If Sue Evans had not persuaded the fishing youth
to believe in me, there may be no Best for Blue Whale story out yet, with the rapid take
up it has had from the industry and international media.
Sri Lanka being the Best for Blue Whale is a recent branding. However, as historian and
architect Ismeth Raheem pointed out to me, the ancient Greeks knew about our whales.
Ptolemy’s map of Taprobane in the 3rd Century AD, had an area near Kumana on the
South-east marked as the Cape of Whales. Perhaps they knew something which has now
been lost in time. Well as for me, I needed Dr. Anderson and his hypothesis to explain the
movement and the precision afforded by Admiralty Charts and portable GPS units for
recording details, to help make sense of it. But it is an extraordinary story of how as
explained above, a few people brought together by a love of science, adventure, the sea,
Sri Lanka and commercial opportunism, all came together at the same time and thrust this
story on the world’s stage in a dizzyingly short space of time.
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18. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). The Sperm Whales of Kalpitiya. Tales from the Field. Hi Magazine. October 2011. Series 9, Volume 3. Pages 172-
177.
Encounters with Sperm Whales off the Kalpitiya Peninsula.
The great beast of Moby Dick fame had swum to within a foot of where my daughter
Amali was seated on the 16 footer boat. It then commenced a feeding dive from just three
feet away as Amali started a film sequence on her compact camera which was later
broadcast on TV. In April 2011, I was once again exploring the seas off the Kalpitiya
Peninsula to consolidate my claim that it is Sri Lanka’s third whale watching hot spot and
one of the top sites in the world for Sperm Whales. I was also expecting to photograph
seemingly rare pelagic seabirds which only a handful of Sri Lankan ornithologists have
seen. I was not disappointed. On some memorable oceanic trips between Tuesday 19th
and Friday 22nd April, I came away with fantastic images of Sperm Whales and pelagic
sea birds. The seas off the Kalpitiya Peninsula are special to me. Since February 2010, I
have set out on many trips with a map of the depths and GPS units, in the spirit of old
fashioned exploration, to discover and publicise Sri Lanka’s last frontier for big ticket
wildlife
In May 2010, based on field work between February and April 2010 and access to data
hitherto not in the public domain, I published articles in the Hi Magazine and Sunday
Times. In them, I gave the first credible and accurate public exposition that the
continental shelf is close to and runs parallel to the Kalpitiya Peninsula. I pointed out that
it will take the 16 footer boats equipped with 25 horsepower outboard engines less than
15 minutes to reach the ‘Sperm Whale Line’, the 300 to 400m depth isoclines along
which Sperm Whales are seen feeding and travelling on a North-South orientation. I had
written that to see and photograph rare seabirds and whales, one should run a boat along
the lines of longitude between East 079 38 and East 079 35. Between these two lines is a
distance of 3 nautical miles (38-35 = 3). Three nauticalmiles is just under 6 kilometres. In
April 2011, once again I found this zone to be the right strike zone for whales and pelagic
seabirds (‘pelagics’).
I have written my most recent round of exploration as two encounters in the field. One
with Sperm Whales and other with pelagic seabirds. Once again my field research was
supported by Dallas Martenstyn and his co-investors at Kalpitiya. As usual, I headed out
to sea with three tanks of fuel, two GPS units and food and water. During my field work
in April 2011, with my wife Nirma and daughters Maya and Amali we occupied a tented
room at Dolphin Beach (www.dolphinbeach.lk). Jetwing Eco holidays
(www.jetwingeco.com) provided transport with naturalist chauffeur guide Lakshman
Senanayake who was expert at picking out rare seabirds floating on the water.
SPERM WHALE ENCOUNTER: A FOOT AWAY FROM THE BOAT
On Friday 22nd April 2011, I asked the boatman Yasaratne to take the boat north along E
079 38, along which I knew Sperm Whales are regularly found, at least in April,
travelling either North or South bound. Before long, Yasaratne spotted the first blow
from a group of Sperm Whales. At one time, I could see four spouting ahead of the boat
86
and another four behind the boat. At least eight were on the surface at that point in time
and it is a guess as to how many more were underneath the water in feeding dives.
The previous day, my daughters Maya and Amali wanted to use the pool at Alankuda
(Barr Reef Resort) which resulted in me running into Viren Perera and Giles Scott. Viren
had read Philip Hoare’s book, ‘The Leviathan or, The Whale’, which he had bought at the
recently concluded Galle Literary Festival. He had also read my articles on whale
watching off Kalpitiya and was keen to join me. It had been a fortuitous meeting and as a
result I was on the boat with Viren Perera, Giles Scott, Tim Edwards and Nirma and
Amali.
The group of Sperm Whales were spread out over 2-3 nautical miles and were travelling
at a speed of between 20 to 30 kilometres per hour. They were also feeding as they would
repeatedly dive. We followed at a distance. After a while, once I was sure that Yasaratne
was accustomed to the idea of keeping a distance, I asked him to do an 'arc forward'. This
is where we curve away from the whale and then move ahead to position ourselves
between 0.5 to 1 km away from the approaching whale. The whale covers this in a few
minutes and has the option of moving away or maintaining its bearing. With the engine
cut off, our boat drifted away from the path of the on-coming whale.
This whale altered course to investigate us and came to within a foot of the boat. It swam
alongside the boat and swam to within a foot of the boat. I could have reached over and
touched it. It them swam about three feet to the front of the boat and then dived on a
short feeding dive. I have found even with leopards in Yala, especially sub-adults, if you
park a few hundred meters away from them, their curiosity overcomes them. They will
come up to investigate the observers. Sperm Whales are highly intelligent, social animals.
They are curious and will investigate boats. Around Kalpitiya they are used to seeing a
lot of boats, small 16 footer speed boats and larger fishing trawlers on the sea. They are
not afraid to approach the fishing boats which do not molest them.
I managed to take the image of the diving Sperm Whale by leaning back whilst standing
on the boat. I had to lean back because it had come so close. The Sperm Whale was
completely relaxed and not in any way stressed by our presence because we had not
chased it for a close up picture. We gave the whale the option of getting close to us.
A few days later I gave an illustrated talk at Jetwing House to tourist guides. I
emphasized that boats with tourists should never chase Sperm Whales. If stressed or
angered, they could smash a boat injuring or killing its occupants, as they did in the days
when they were hunted by whalers. If you keep a distance and leave it at the whale’s
discretion to approach you, one is safe. Intelligent regulation of whale watching will
become important as the efforts by me and others succeed in establishing Sri Lanka as
one of the top marine mammal destinations in the world.
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17. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). Longest and Best for Blue. The Sunday
Times Plus. Sunday 04 September 2011. Features. Page 6.
http://sundaytimes.lk/110904/Plus/plus_08.html
The first article using a compilation of new data to make the case that resident Blue
Whales off Trincomalee extend Sri Lanka’s commercial Blue Whale watching season
from December to August.
The article below was originally published in the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) on Sunday
4th September 2011. The revised version below includes a few changes, most notably a
Summary
******************************************************
Summary
Recent data (especially from the Sri Lankan Navy) points to a
commercially feasible strike rate for whales which extends Sri Lanka’s
Blue Whale watching season from May to August off Trincomalee. This
over-turns the prevailing view that the Blue Whale season finishes in
April. Whale watching can now become commercially established during
the ‘East Coast Season’.
The combined Mirissa (December to April) and Trincomalee (March to
August) seasons for watching Blue Whale now gives Sri Lanka the
longest and best Blue Whale watching season in the world, spanning at
least 9 months.
During May to August, Blue Whales remain close, around 6-8 nautical
miles East of Trincomalee, about 30 minutes in travel time.
Koneswaram Temple atop Swamy Rock is the best publicly accessible on-
shore whale watch point in the world for watching Blue Whales.
After beaches, the Blue Whales may be the most important focal point for
East coast tourism. As a story for the international media which lends to
TV documentaries, the publicity could generate thousands of room nights
for Sri Lanka’s East Coast.
Between March to August, Trincomalee has a combined strike rate of over
80 per cent for Blue and Sperm Whales. More data is needed at species
level. Dolphins (mainly Spinner Dolphins) have a higher strike rate.
The Gathering (of Elephants) and East Coast Blues will coincide. Much of
Sri Lanka’s top wildlife assets are to the left of the Diagonal (a line
connecting Yala and Mannar). Now the right side of the Diagonal will
have stronger revenue generating wildlife assets.
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The South-west monsoon can create choppy conditions off-shore during
the East Coast season and the small 14 foot boats may be more limited in
the time and distance they can travel when looking for Blue and Sperm
Whales.
*******************************************************
It is five in the morning and Orion the hunter is lying on his side suspended over the
horizon. Directly over me is Jupiter and through my Swarovski binoculars I can make out
two of its moons on opposite sides. A line drawn from the middle star of Orion’s sword
and through his head points the way to the North. I make a note of the direction in which
I must travel. I want to cut through the cluster of Blue Whale sightings which have been
marked over a Survey Department map on the wall of the naturalist’s room at the Chaaya
Blue Hotel. Mohan Sahabandu and A.G. Gayan, two of the Chaaya Blue naturalists
ensure that an extra tank of fuel is loaded on the boat. My research trips can be long.
I show Gayan the Orion nebula, a fuzzy patch on Orion’s sword, where a star had turned
supernova and exploded. It’s fuzzy; somewhat like my chances of seeing a Blue Whale
out here on a single trip because it’s 5th August and most of the Blue Whales should now
have returned to the Arabian Sea. In May 2008, I went international with credible data for
the hypothesis by Dr. Charles Anderson that an East -West migration of Blue Whales
brings significant numbers into Sri Lankan waters in a movement between the Arabian
Sea off the Horn of Africa and the Bay of Bengal. The data so far, seems to back this up.
During the whale watching season during December to mid April, Blue Whales are seen
easily off Mirissa as well as Trincomalee.
The timing and direction of travel predicted by Anderson had been holding up well. He
had predicted that they would be travelling East in December/January and West in April.
For example, on 5th November 2010, Anoma Alagiyawadu, the Jetwing Lighthouse
naturalist observed a spectacular movement of at least 25 Blue Whales travelling East
past Mirissa. By December there were a good number of Blue Whales off both Mirissa
and Trincomalee for the 2010/2011 season.
Earlier, the data for the tail end of the 2009/2010 season had also strengthened the
hypothesis. We had some data points where we had checked that that the Blue Whales off
Trincomalee were thinning off, as expected. On 2nd May and 3rd May 2010 Jetwing Eco
Holidays naturalist Suchithra Hettiarchchi whale watched with Dr. Charles Anderson.
They glimpsed a Blue Whale on the 3rd of May. They called off a third scheduled trip to
sea as it seemed the Blue Whales had largely left. On 5th and 6th May, Chitral Jayatilake
had another stab and saw a Blue Whale on the 6th. On 19th May 2010, with Jetwing Eco
Holidays naturalists Supurna Hettiarachchi and Suchithra Hettiarachchi and operations
staff Ganganath Weerasinghe and Riaz Cader, I looked for Blue Whales and failed. So it
seemed that Trincomalees’s Blue Whale season ended at the same time as it did for
Mirissa.
89
In April 2011, on a two week visit to Sri Lanka, I once again concentrated my efforts to
collect more data on the Sperm Whale Line which is just 15 minutes by boat off the
Kalpitiya Peninsula. However, I spoke to Chitral Jayatilake, the Head of Eco-Tourism of
John Keells Hotels for a data check. The frequency of sightings and numbers had
dwindled and at best they were seeing just one or two Blue Whales since mid April. In
contrast, when I sailed on the 27th of April 2011 from Mirissa, Dr Anderson who was out
the same morning on another boat, estimated that no less than 17 individuals were
feeding in an area of 5 kilometers square. All of this seems to suggest that the Blue
Whales which had arrived in the Bay of Bengal from November to January were now
leaving it, emptying out of the seas off Trincomalee and being seen off Mirissa as they
journeyed back to the Arabian Sea. The tail end of the 2010/2011 season once again
seemed to suggest that beyond April, Blue Whales would not be present in sufficiently
large numbers for commercial whale watching to be feasible.
No one had tested this although it has been known for decades that some Blue Whales
were present throughout the year. This was clearly demonstrated in reviews from the
1980s and in a regional study of strandings by Charles Anderson and colleagues
published in 1999. Anouk Ilangakoon, at a marine mammal conference in the Maldives in
July 2009 had presented a paper re-iterating the presence of Blue Whales throughout the
year.
In my dialogue with Dr. Anderson, he suggested that Blue Whales may adopt two feeding
strategies: those which took part in the East-West migration and those that chose to stay
around Sri Lankan waters. I wrote about this in an article published in the Sunday Times
on 26th December 2010. I had a conversation in June 2011 with Lester Perera who had
researched cetaceans for the National Aquatics Resources Agency (NARA) in the 1980s.
He was also adamant that he had recorded Blue Whales throughout the year but was not
sure why there were no recent records in the May to August period. There was
speculation from several people that the fighting had scared them away. I was convinced
that I needed to go out myself during the “off season” to have a look. Maybe the whales
are only not there because no one is looking for them. Ideally, I would need at least 10
trips to gain a sense of what is out there. But two nights at the Chaaya Blue Hotel
organized by Nadija Tambia of John Keells gave me the chance for an exploratory ‘out of
the whale watching season’ trip.
The stars had begun to fade from the brightening sky as we eventually heaved the boat
from land onto the sea. The naturalists had warned me that the chances of seeing a Blue
Whale are small at this time of year. I had been a strong advocate of this theory, but since
last evening I had begun to suspect that those of us who had promoted commercial whale
watching may have missed a trick. Soon after my arrival at the Chaaya Blue, Mohan and
Gayan gave me a print out of the Blue Whale sightings between 27th April 2010 and 14th
November 2010. Most of the data I was shown had been logged on trips by the regular
Chaaya Blue Naturalist B. Dayarathne, who had joined me on my earlier unsuccessful
trip.
90
Between 27th April 2010 and 14th November 2010, there was data on 41 trips and Blue
Whales had been seen 14 times. This is a strike rate of 1 in 3 trips. On 28th April 2010, 6
Blue Whales had been seen on a trip led by naturalist Nilantha Kodituwakku. After that
the records are mainly singles, or pairs with one occasion where three had been seen. An
additional data point on 18th November refers to un-confirmed sightings by fishermen of
many whales continuously 35-40km east of Swamy Rock (but I suspect the distance is
closer as fishermen rarely go beyond sight of land).
The data and the naturalists confirmed that as with Mirissa, during the December-April
whale watching season, there is a marked increase in the number and ease with which
whales are seen. Speaking to Chitral Jayatilake I gathered that between their first trip on
the 21st February, up to 11th April, they had sightings on all but four days. Then it began
to thin out. From Mirissa, outside of this season, the seas can be quite rough because of
the South-west Monsoon and hardly any whale watching is undertaken. So even if a
resident population of Blue Whales remains off Mirissa, it would be difficult to collect
data. In Trincomalee on the other hand, boats can go out during the South-west Monsoon
(although the winds can create choppy seas) and there is a chance of seeing the resident
Blue Whales.
When I arrived in Trincomalee on 5th August, the hotels were not actively promoting
whale watching in the May to August period. The prevailing view was that a
commercially feasible strike rate for seeing Blue Whales was not available. Studying the
available data at the Chaaya Blue, I sensed that commercial whale watching may be
possible. After all, when I headed South of Mirissa on 1st April 2008, no one had
presented publicly a credible set of data to make a convincing case for the ease of seeing
Blue Whales in the South. Perhaps as in Mirissa, the Blue Whales were not there only
because a concerted effort had not been made to look for them.
The previous evening I had watched a shimmering thread of amber beads stretched out
across the ocean’s horizon. These were fishing boats. I counted. There were 69 of them.
If there were enough fish for so many boats, there must be a big enough food chain to
support whales. I was filled with hope. I had heard reports that the boat used by the Navy
was a large powerful vessel which headed out to 30-40 nautical miles to locate Blue
Whales. I could not think of a clear reason for going out so far. I decided to go with my
instincts and to search for Blue Whales where the fishing boats were. This also tallied
with the cluster of sightings on the map in the naturalist’s room.
On the 1st of April 2008, a trip off Mirissa set the “Sri Lanka Best for Blue” story in
motion. On 5th August 2011, off Trincomalee, I saw my first Blue Whale in the so called
off season for whale watching. This has acted as a catalyst to collate data which points to
an extension of Sri Lanka’s Blue Whale watching season. Close to N 08 34 441, E 81 21
176, where we encountered the whale, I texted the Jetwing Eco Holidays operations team
and the naturalists to alert them. I followed up with a phone call whilst on the boat to
Chitral Jayatilake to discuss the sighting. He thought the navy which had commenced a
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whale watching operation, may be a source of current data as the large boat used by them
could go out safely in conditions which were too rough for the smaller boats used off the
Nilaveli Beach. I also phoned Lester Perera on the drive back to Colombo. There were so
many questions to be resolved. Are those Blue Whales which are seen at this time of the
year, permanent residents or do some alternate between participating in the East –West
migration and staying back in some years? If an individual whale adopts a mixed feeding
strategy, is this related to a particular developmental stage? Do any whales come in from
the East? Only radio tracking and photographic identification over a long term will
answer these questions. I had been told of a sighting of a Blue Whale in Mirissa which
had a radio transmitter embedded. Where had that whale come from?
A more immediate question was whether we could claim a viable whale watching
product off Trincomalee between May and August. Lester had whale watched on 19th
July, embarking off Nilaveli Beach and not seen Blue Whales. He had failed. Had I just
got lucky on the day or were there enough Blue Whales out there for a mainstream
tourism product? The data so far was too sparse. I needed the Navy data.
More data arrived soon. On Saturday 13th August I was at Talangama Wetland with Riaz
Cader when Suchithra phoned him to say he had scanned the sea from Swamy Rock. He
had made it a point to carry binoculars because he had been inspired by John Keells
naturalist Nilantha Kodituwakku’s photograph of a Blue Whale near Swamy Rock.
Suchithra had seen a single Blue Whale. I sighed aloud that I needed the Navy data. If the
Blue Whales were so close, why was the Navy going so far out? What was the strike rate
of the Navy? Exactly a week later, an excited Jetwing Eco Holidays naturalist Wicky
Wickremesekera came home and told me that Supurna had also seen Blue Whales off
Trincomalee. On Wednesday 17th August Supurna had also scanned the sea from Swamy
Rock through his binoculars. A few kilometers out, he could make out three simultaneous
blows of Blue Whales. I had over coffee at Cinnamon Grand a few days earlier, told him
of my sighting and my view that Blue Whales may be off-season only because we are not
looking for them. I told him of the view held by Anouk Ilangakoon and Lester Perera.
Inspired by this, he chartered the same boat he had taken with me a year ago and set out
on Thursday 18th August. At 9.15am he had three Blue Whales in the field of view, an
estimated 5-6 kilometers from the shore. The sea turned rough and on the way in, they
had another Blue Whale close to Swamy Rock. It seemed like to see Blue Whales all one
had to do was spend time on Swamy Rock. I wondered again why the navy was sailing
two hours out to sea and what their strike rate may be.
Sandie Dawe the CEO of Visit Britain who was touring Sri Lanka alerted me to a group
she had met who had seen whales the previous day with the boat operated by the Sri
Lankan Navy. Paramie Perera from the Jetwing Eco Holidays team traced the guide as
Ananda Perera from Jetwing Travels. He gave me a first hand account of spending two
hours at sea before encountering Blue Whales. They had several sightings; at one time
they had three in the field of view on Wednesday 10th August. As I began to ask around
for more first hand accounts, I spoke to another person who had been on the Navy boat
on Saturday 13th August. He could see five Blue Whales spouting at one time and the
Navy personnel had said there were six Blue Whales out there.
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I had by now accumulated a fairly convincing collection of data but the Navy data was
essential. Fortunately for me Riaz Cader who heard me sigh about needing the Navy data
did some nifty footwork and reached Commander Kosala Wijesooriya who is in charge
of the whale watching operation. “The Navy wants to talk to you’ he said sounding
ominous. The Sri Lankan military now has a new breed of officers who are tech savvy
and results oriented. A flurry of emails and text messages followed leaving me impressed
at the speed and quality of the response. On Saturday 20th August I spoke to Commander
Kosala Wijesooriya, the project manager for the Navy’s whale watching operation. They
had been running the whale watching on Wednesdays and Saturdays starting from 11th
June 2011. He was on his 13th trip. He was on the boat on the Navy’s 15th whale watching
trip. They had seen Blue Whales on 13 out of 15 trips, a strike rate of over 80 per cent.
Furthermore, he confirmed that the whales are only 6 to 8 nautical miles east of Pigeon
Island. The two hour trip to get there was because they took a longer route to find
dolphins. His distance tied in with what I had expected and the on-shore and at sea
observations. As Sri Lankan Navy A543 approached the Trincomalee Harbour, with
Commander Kosala Wijesooriya on the phone to me, I knew the story was in the bag. I
now had accumulated enough data from first hand observations to take the story to the
market that there are enough Blue Whales present off Trincomalee between May to
August, during what had been perceived as “off season” for Blue Whales. This article
represents the first effort to compile observations to make a credible story backed by data
to take the story to press and tour operators locally and overseas, that commercial Blue
Whale watching is possible from Trincomalee from around late February/March when
the seas become calm and through to August. During December to late February, the
seas may be rough off Trincomalee and Mirissa may be a better option. As the Mirissa
season starts in November/December, Sri Lanka now offers between 9 to 10 months of
Blue Whale watching.
But information based on a phone conversation is not available for independent, external
scrutiny. No one so far had made an extensive data set available on-line. Would the Sri
Lanka Navy be able to do it? At least the date, time, species and number of whales seen?
Asking for the GPS locations may be pushing my luck. Or at least, can I take a look at the
Navy log? Commander Wijesooriya hesitated. Releasing data would need clearance. I
said it would be crucial as eco-tourism relies on credible data in the public domain for
people like me to win the buy in of the media, clients and the tourism industry. Making
their data public would fill hotel rooms and create employment. There was a pause at the
other end of the line. “If it is going to help promote tourism in Sri Lanka, the Navy will
help you” he said hanging up as the A543 made its final approach to the harbor.
On Thursday 25th August, Commander Wijesooriya called me. The whale watching data
from both Galle and Trincomalee, including GPS points was on-line on
http://whalewatching.navy.lk. Wow! With my wife Nirma and children Maya and Amali,
I accessed the Navy’s website and downloaded the pdfs. My children were surprised at
my excitement. I told them that in years to come there will be 20-30 regulated and
responsible whale watching boats off Trincomalee generating millions of rupees a day. It
would be a much needed focus for the East Coast besides the beaches. Tourists now
could see The Gathering of Elephants listed by Lonely Planet as one of the Top Ten
spectacles in the world and go on to Trincomalee to watch Blue Whales by boat or if
93
lucky from atop Swamy Rock with the use of binoculars. However, a review of the data
and further conversations revealed that the navy had not distinguished between Blue and
Sperm Whales. So it is possible that the navy’s strike rate for Blue Whales may have
been less than the 13 out of 15 or 87 per cent it had seemed at first. As the log did not
refer to large groups of whales (typical of Sperm Whales), probably most of the sightings
were just Blue Whales. Even if the strike rate were to drop for Blue Whales, if for Blue or
Sperm Whales, there is a blended strike rate of over eighty per cent during June to
August. That is good enough for mainstream tourism to offer whale watching from
Trincomalee from March through to August.
On Monday 29th August, I met Commander Wijesooriya with Riaz Cader and Ganganath
Weerasinghe at Cinnamon Grand’s pool-side cafe to pore over the admiralty charts with
the navy data. Although Commander Wijesooriya had served in and around Trincomalee
on Dvoras and other navy boats from mid 1997 to May 2011, he had never seen a Blue
Whale. He was then pre-occupied with looking out for attacks from LTTE suicide boats.
It was a classic case of what I had told on camera the previous Friday to ETV, that what
you see is what you look for. There were only scattered, hazy anecdotal accounts of the
navy encountering whales as they fought a sophisticated enemy in the sea. I was
impressed to hear that the navy had the foresight to trail blaze whale watching in what
was perceived as the off season for Blue Whales. They took a gamble with no concrete
data to suggest that they will find whales. Now the tourism industry needs to realize that
the Blue Whales off Trincomalee are the East Coast’s biggest international draw, beside
its beaches.
As we talked with Wijesooriya, Libby Own-Edmunds joined us as and I learnt that she
had seen a Blue Whale on the 6th May 2011. A few minutes later naturalist B. Dayarathne
informed me that their boatman had encountered Blue Whales about 5 kilometers away
from Pigeon Island on the 26th August. Data continues to roll in. Several days later,
Eshan Goonesekera showed me images of Blue Whales he had taken on 16th August
2011. He had chartered a boat from Pigeon Island Resort and seen two Blue Whales after
an hour.
On the 24th August at the Barefoot Cafe, I met some people who told me that a few weeks
earlier their friends had been discouraged by their hotel in Trincomalee from going out to
sea for Blue Whales. They had been told it was the wrong time for whales. All that will
change now.
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16. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). How Sri Lanka was positioned as being Best for Blue Whales. Daily Mirror. Colombo. 28 July 2011. Page C8.
http://print.dailymirror.lk/life/132-life/51299.html
The summary of the story behind Sri Lanka’s rise to eminence as the top spot for Blue
Whales.
Imagine encountering an aggregation of 25 Blue Whales migrating together. This is the
stuff of dreams for any marine biologist. On 5th November 2010, Anoma Alagiyawadu,
the naturalist of Jetwing Lighthouse Hotel was on his 234th whale watch on a sailing
with Mirissa Water Sports (MWS). He took down critical notes on this encounter of 25
migrating Blue Whales to add a spectacular observation to the on-going story of Sri
Lanka and its Blue Whale migration. On Sunday 24th April 2011 when I joined him on
one of the last sailings that season, he was on his 340th sailing. On that day, we had
seven Blue Whales spouting simultaneously around the boat. Dr. Charles Anderson who
was on another boat estimated that there were at least 17 different individual Blue Whales
on that morning’s sailing, feeding in an area of approximately 5 kilometers square.
In 2010/11, Southern Sri Lanka completed its third, full and proper whale watching
season, demonstrating further that it is ‘Best for Blue’. During this period, I found myself
once again answering many questions from film crews, print media, tour operators and
clients. There was also interest from students in marketing, who wanted to learn how a
small group of people established commercial whale watching and generated column
inches of international publicity.
In this article I would like to re-cap on the short, recent history of Blue Whale watching
in Sri Lanka. In May 2008, I took the story to the world that the South of Sri Lanka is the
best place in the world for seeing Blue Whales. The open release article which was
published widely remains the best reference point (see the list of articles on
www.jetwingeco.com). To-recap briefly, the story rested on a hypothesis by the British
marine biologist Dr. Charles Anderson. My role was to connect the dots between science
and commerce by doing my own field work to ground truth the hypothesis and launch a
press blitz to establish Sri Lanka as the number one spot for Blue Whales. Dr. Anderson
had first suggested his migration theory in a paper published in Sri Lanka in 1999, which
reviewed sightings and strandings in South Asia. Having subsequently reviewed his
sightings records up to mid 2002, a total of nearly two thousand encounters, he refined
his hypothesis further in a paper published in 2005.
Dr. Anderson and I discussed plans to search for the migrating Blue Whales at the British
Bird Watching Fair in August 2003. But our plans were delayed by the Tsunami of
December 2004. In the aftermath of the Tsunami, the Build a Future Foundation set up
Mirissa Water Sports (MWS) as a sailing and angling business to provide employment
for Tsunami-affected fishing youth on the south coast. In April 2006, the MWS crew
stumbled upon a Blue Whale and it was photographed by Simon Scarff (a keen angler
who as a volunteer was training the crew in angling, etc). Of course whales have been
seen by many other locals, passing shipping crews and even researchers on visiting
vessels. But previously, there was no scientist with a hypothesis which suggested that
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blue whales might be sighted regularly. Establishing a viewing season, a strike zone and a
sellable strike rate, were essential requirements for someone like me in the private sector
to launch an international story and to have it accepted rapidly by both the media and
mainstream tourism. This twinning of science and commerce, a flair for taking a story
international and the ability to ground truth it first with field work were pivotal to the
breathtakingly rapid development of commercial whale watching.
Dr. Anderson eventually caught up with the Blue Whales in April 2007 on a recce I
missed out as I was due to fly out to Milan. Subsequently, both Dr. Anderson and I
pressed Anoma Alagiyawadu to record data on sailings. With the data I was seeing, I
sensed we may have a sellable product. I set out to sea on 1st April 2008 to clinch what I
thought would be one of the biggest positive media stories for Sri Lanka. It was an
amazing trip with multiple sightings of Blue and Sperm Whales. With assistance from
Sue Evans a volunteer helper to MWS we subsequently negotiated with MWS to take me
out for future trips for the price of diesel. This was in return for a promise that if the data
held up, I would put Mirissa on the international map for whale watching. After several
amazing sailing with MWS, I came away with a strong set of field data and thousands of
images of Blue Whales (and also Sperm Whales) during April 2008. I launched a press
blitz in May 2008 which publicized Sri Lanka as the top spot for Blue Whales. Anderson
provided the scientific theory, MWS the boat and crew, with the Jetwing team I did the
rest to collect more data and to make sure the story was accepted internationally and
commercial whale watching became a mainstream tourism offering.
On 1st April 2008, when I was joined by volunteers Sue Evans and Simon Scarff, it was
in doubt whether MWS would remain viable with their business model for leisure sailing.
Their original plan was to take bookings for either two small sailing craft for ‘self hire’ or
to have the 54 footer, wooden decked Spirit of Dondra available for hire with a full crew.
These would be pleasure sailings with food and beverage served aboard or for hire by
specialist anglers. Since their April 2006 encounter, they had added whale watching to
their offerings, but whales remained a random encounter. No convincing story for why
whale watching was viable, was in circulation. The Anderson hypothesis, although
clearly stated in two technical papers, was not in the public consciousness. There was a
worry that MWS may even close shop as the 2007/2008 season drew to a close. Sailings
for any reason were so few. The crew’s experience with whales was so limited at that
time that on my first sailing with them they could not distinguish between Sperm and
Blue Whales.
My press blitz in May 2008 changed all of that. A few months later, the publicity shy
patron saint of MWS, a wealthy philanthropist, visited me in office. By then with the
team at Jetwing Eco Holidays, we had rolled out whale watching itineraries and briefed
the foreign offices of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and developed a 16 page
brief which offered credible reasons why there was a high strike rate for seeing Blue
Whales. I assured him that during the next season there would be sufficient demand for a
second boat. MWS continued to sail and did indeed launch a second boat in the second
full season of whale watching in 2008/2009. This extended to three boats for the
2010/2011 season.
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The press blitz continued, with me explaining why sailing from Mirissa offered the
quickest access to the whales. The efforts of Jetwing were complemented by a team led
by Chitral Jayathilake from Walkers Tours who had also started whale watching with
sailings from Galle, in a boat lease agreement with the Ceylon Fishery Harbours
Corporation. We all received enthusiastic support from the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion
Bureau who further disseminated the story. Consequently, whale watching became
established in the mainstream tourism vocabulary in an amazingly short time. By
2008/2009, the first full whale watching season, it was firmly established. So much so
that by April 2010, the end of the second full season, I began to chase another story. This,
once again inspired by an intuition by Dr. Anderson, was to establish Kalpitiya Peninsula
as Sri Lanka’s third whale watching hot spot. This field work was supported by Dallas
Martenstyn and his co-investors at Alankuda Beach. It has established the Kalpitiya
Peninsula as South Asia’s hot spot for pelagic seabirds and one of the best if not the best
in Asia for pelagic seabirds.
The recent and rapid development of whale watching in Sri Lanka is characterized by a
strong partnership between science and commerce. Anderson provided the scientific lead
for both Mirissa and Kalpitiya. I brought in an eye for a commercial opportunity and the
ability to develop and launch tourism products rapidly into mainstream tourism using the
business clout of the Jetwing family of companies together with a well honed flair for
taking the stories (e.g. The Gathering, Leopard Safaris, etc) to the local and international
media. The fact that I had a background in the applied sciences, was a popular science
enthusiast, a field naturalist and photographer also helped. This background made me
receptive to the insights by Dr. Anderson and I recognized the need to give due credit to
the scientific insights and to leverage it.
I especially understood how important a scientific backbone would be to hang the story
on, to make it credible to both local and international media. This need for credibility
holds true for clients and tour operators as well. This was the reason why I applied
intense pressure on Jetwing Lighthouse naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu not just to record
data, but to let the Jetwing Eco Holidays have it in a format which could be disseminated
on the web for anyone who wished to process or view the data to have access to it. The
stream of data used by me helped to create publicity, generated even more sailings which
in turn generated even more data. This created a positive feedback loop which made
whale watching a viable business. I think my insistence on this steady feed of data was
pivotal not only to gathering and delivering the data but keeping the whale watching
boats in business and avoiding another attempt at developing whale watching to fizzle
out. The interaction between Dr Anderson and me allowed science and commerce to be
bridged to create livelihoods. This in turn makes a strong financial case for conservation.
There were many others of course who provided the vital ingredients. The boats and crew
becoming available is one. The efforts of the Build a Future Foundation to help the
tsunami affected fishing youth by setting up Mirissa Water Sports provided a crucial
piece of infrastructure; the later tie up between Walkers Tours and the Ceylon Fishery
Harbours Corporation also helped here. There was assistance from many others including
volunteers such as Sue Evans and Simon Scarff and Jetwing Lighthouse naturalist Anoma
Alagiyawadu. The Jetwing Eco Holidays team and the media invited, were hosted on my
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research trips by the Jetwing Lighthouse in 2008 and 2009. The Jetwing Lighthouse also
supported Dr. Charles Anderson under the Jetwing Research Initiative, an investment that
has been rewarded handsomely with new business and publicity generated for it. The
Jetwing Eco Holidays team plays a huge part in the continuing publicity campaign and at
present the website www.jetwingeco.com lists over a hundred media actions to brand Sri
Lanka as being Best for Blue.
Whale watching is now firmly established in the tourism literature and everyone from
small guest houses to tuk tuk drivers to the large destination management companies are
offering it. Now, it is almost as if whale watching has always been around, ever since
Ptolemy marked a Cape of Whales on his 3rd Century AD map of Taprobane. This article
was written as a handy summary in response to the questions on the rapid development of
whale watching in Sri Lanka since May 2008. The challenge ahead will be in the
intelligent regulation of whale watching so that it develops as a economic asset but with
due regard to the safety of clients and the welfare of marine mammals. The rational
development of whale watching off the seas of the Kalpitiya Peninsula will pose similar
challenges.
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15. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). Blue Whale off Mirissa. July - August
2011. Living. Pages 42-43. Volume 6, Issue 6. ISSN 1800-0746.
Watching Blues Whales off Mirissa.
It has gone quiet and we are chatting. Suddenly a loud exhalation of air has all us
scrambling to view from the port side of the boat. Another whoosh and another jet of
steam rushes out three storeys out into the air. But the tall white column is ephemeral and
dematerialises in a fraction of a second. Just from the whoosh we knew a Blue Whale had
surfaced near the boat. The giant of the ocean had chosen to emerge less than 100 feet
from the boat. It was totally relaxed and unconcerned at our presence. We had spent the
last two hours watching one Blue Whale after another. But this was the closest we had
been to one on that day. Another loud exhalation on the starboard side announced the
presence of yet another Blue Whale on the other side of the boat, about 150 feet away.
Another two Blue Whales joined each of them. We now had four Blue Whales within two
hundred feet of the boat. I don’t think they were pairs as such, probably adults who were
feeding on their own but bunched together by their food, krill, being concentrated into
one area.
Dutchman Jaap Plugge drew my attention to the blows of three other Blue Whales in the
distance. I could be dead certain now that there were at least 7 Blue Whales within sight
of the boat. At the edge of the horizon, where the sea curved away, we could see at least
three other whale watching boats watching whales which we could not see. I would guess
that all of the boats were simultaneously watching at least 10 different Blue Whales. On
another boat, the Spirit of Dondra was Dr. Charles Anderson, whose hypothesis had been
the basis for my own fieldwork and subsequent publicity in May 2008 that Sri Lanka was
Best for Blue, the best place in the world for watching Blue Whales. Later over lunch,
Anderson said he believed that on that day, his boat had observed seventeen different
individual Blue Whales. They were feeding in an area of approximately a 5 kilometer
quadrat. A week earlier, he had estimated that they had seen 16 different Blue Whales.
Because it is so easy to double count Blue Whales, most reports I hear of 16 plus Blue
Whales probably relate to the same five or six Blue Whales surfacing repeatedly at
different places. With an experienced observer like Anderson and the fact that I could see
at least seven simultaneously, I know the number being reported was credible. It was
reassuring that the claim I had made for Sri Lanka was increasingly gaining credibility
which each whale watching session. 2010/2011 marked only the third full whale
watching season and already Jetwing Lighthouse Naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu who
was with me was on his 340th whale watch.
The whale watch on Sunday 24th April 2011 was the stuff of dreams. I had driven South
on a Saturday with Riaz Cader through unrelenting rain. We had resigned ourselves to a
Sunday probably spent on shore chatting to Dr. Anderson and his group on a rain and
wind swept day. Instead the Sunday opened gloriously with flat seas. We sailed with a
hint of monsoonal mist shrouding the fishing boats etched against the horizon as we
headed due South to around ten nautical miles. A school of around 1,000 Spinner
Dolphins burst upon us breaking the sea with white splashes. They cavorted and played
as they bow rode fishing boats. Pod after pod of Spinners swirled around us rising in
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cetacean waves that sped around us. After nearly forty minutes of distraction we
continued further south to easily pick up blow after blow of feeding Blue Whales.
The four Blue Whales around use were beginning to drift away when a phone call came
through that another boat was watching Sperm Whales. I had also publicised the claim
that the South of Sri Lanka was also the best place in the world for seeing Blue and
Sperm Whales on the same sailing. At times, both species can be in the field of view at
the same time, as happened on that day. The Sperm Whales were logging, travelling on
the surface. The experienced boat crews kept their distance and before long four rather
relaxed Sperm Whales chose to swim between our boat and another. Spinners, Blues,
now Sperm Whales, surely it could not get any better. Well it did. A White-tailed
Tropicbird flew past and landed on the water allowing us to photograph it. Soon after two
bulky chested Pomarine Skuas flew over the boats. Both of these are scarce pelagic
seabirds seldom seen by landlubbers. Plugge a keen wildlife traveller said that this was
the best wildlife trip he had ever experienced. Megha from India, was so glad that she
flown in for five nights at the Jetwing lighthouse having noticed a reference to Sri
Lanka’s Blue Whales in an airline magazine. I could not have had a better way to finish
my fourth season at sea, consolidating Sri Lanka’s biggest positive story
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14. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2011). Mirissa or Trinco: Which will be the hot spot for Blue Whales? The Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 02 January 2011.
Features. Page 7.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110102/Plus/plus_12.html
This article discusses whether Mirissa will remain the top spot or be overtaken by
Trincomalee for Blue Whales.
In my previous article in this two part series, I discussed the two strategies, resident and
migratory adopted by individual whales. The notion that Blue Whales for whale watching
were present all year found favour with some at the start of 2010. Some people,
especially those in tourism in particular wanted to believe in this. With the opening of the
east coast, they thought that this opened up Blue Whale watching in Sri Lanka all year
round. In August 2010 I conversed with a British wildlife Tour Leader who was about to
bring a Blue Whale watching trip to Trincomalee in August. It was the season for
Trincomalee. I reminded him of the Anderson hypothesis that most of the Blue Whales
should almost all be in the Arabian Sea by then. I also drew his attention to something
else Dr. Anderson had pointed out. Although it is the season in Trincomalee during this
time, the South-west Monsoon with its powerful offshore winds creates rough conditions
the further out to sea one travels, on the East coast as well. However, where the wind
meets the water first, on the Eastern shoreline, it is relatively calm.
In April 2010, the eco-tourism teams of John Keells followed by Jetwing were amongst
the first to go out to sea for several sailings. I was on a game drive in Yala with Chitral
Jayathilake (with Dr. Anderson due to arrive in the park for a leopard safari) when
Nilantha Kodituwakku one of his John Keells naturalists phoned in to say he had
photographed Blue Whales. The Chaaya Blue in Trincomalee has a floor to ceiling high
image, of a Blue Whale. This stunning and evocative image taken by Kodituwakku
shows a Blue Whale close to Swami Rock, from the first round of exploratory sailings in
April 2010. However, all was not well on the ‘can see them all year-round’ hopes or
theory. The opening of Trincomalee also seemed to confirm the Anderson hypothesis as
the majority of the whales disappear by the end of April. Dr. Anderson and I went out to
sea in Trincomalee in April 2010, a few days apart and we both concluded that most of
the whales had gone by then. I also found myself and the team from Jetwing Eco
Holidays being brought back to shore by a boatman who was uneasy with the choppy
conditions created out at sea by the South-west Monsoon. In an article published in
Ahasa, the Mihin Air in-flight magazine in August 2010, I explained why Trincomalee
will not alternate with Mirissa and the timing of the whales will be similar.
During the World Travel Market (WTM) week in London, I had discussions with
Andrew Sutton for whom we had arranged to film and take stills of Sperm Whales and
Blue Whales underwater off Mirissa in March 2009. I also spoke to Philip Hoare the
author of ‘Leviathan or, The Whale’ and Ian Rowlands of Planet Whale, a tour operator.
Soon afterwards I also had meetings with film makers Simon Christopher and Adaire
Osbaldeston. Trincomalee is in the Bay of Bengal which is at the end point area of the
Blue Whale Migration. A recurring question was whether Mirissa or Trincomalee would
be the better location for film crews. It is tempting to think of Trincomalee as being the
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best option as it has a history of being known for Blue Whales for around thirty years.
Also, the Blue Whales according to the Anderson hypothesis, end up in that area. There is
also a deep submarine canyon, which comes in to the harbour which explains why people
have seen them from ashore and dramatic images such as the one taken by Kodituwakku.
However, the Bay of Bengal is a vast area of thousands of square kilometers. We need
more data before we know how the Blue Whales are spreading themselves out and also
whether the Blue Whales also spread themselves out temporally with different
individuals having different times in which they arrive and leave from the area. As I
mentioned in my previous article, the secrets may be unlocked as and when a Facebook
or Flickr account becomes the repository for thousand of images (ideally encoded with
GPS coordinates) which are uploaded by people on commercial whale watching sessions.
At this juncture, because the data is not available, I cannot offer a definitive view as to
whether Trincomalee will up stage Mirissa. I had a chance meeting with Mani
Sugathapala of John Keells Hotels during WTM week. I urged that the naturalists of
Chaaya Blue make the data of their sailings from Trincomalee available and frequently
updated on the web. The confidence of the press and tour operators in my story that Sri
Lanka was Best for Blue Whales was partly built on the data being available and
regularly updated on www.jetwingeco.com. Field data is the key to developing nature
tourism and only quality data from Trincomalee will challenge Mirissa’s pre-eminence as
Sri Lanka’s top spot for whale watching.
The data to position Mirissa for whale watching became available thanks largely to
Jetwing Lighthouse naturalist Anoma Algiyawadu, who came under serious pressure
from me to make the data available at least on a fortnightly basis. I knew that typing up
notes is not easy for many Sri Lankans for whom English is a second language. I also
knew the naturalists were extremely busy and working long days. Therefore, I resorted to
being a tad extreme and would phone, text or email naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu at
least thrice a week during the 2008/2009 season, to get the data up. This relentless
pressure no doubt helped to establish a routine and compile a body of data. I am also
pretty confident that if I had not sailed on 1st April 2008 and broken the story the way I
did, we will only have a small fraction the data. The huge volume of sailings and the
consequent data came as a result of my having convinced people that Blue Whales can be
seen easily. It is not impossible that if it were not for the aggressive campaign, the fishing
youth of MWS may even have moved on to other employment in the next season and
gathering any data may have become a problem as had been the case in previous years.
Trincomalee may well be better as it is an end point and a submarine canyon brings the
whales close to shore. Only a similarly determined effort to collect and publish the data
on the web will establish whether Trincomalee is as good or better. For the moment, I
still believe Mirissa is the safer option for film crews because it has an established body
of data and we know that the migrating Blue Whales pass through at least twice and are
present throughout the season from November/December to April (but note that peak
sightings have so far been at the December-January and March-April intersections). We
also have the presence of infrastructure in terms of experienced whale watching boats and
crews. As for Sperm Whales, my guess is that the seas off Kalpitiya Peninsula on the
400m depth isobath on E 79 35 provide an ideal location as the Sperm Whales often
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swim along or parallel to this line of longitude. The whale watching off Sri Lanka just
keeps getting better.
The unfolding whale watching story and the fact that Sri Lanka is the best for Blue
Whales fits into my wider story that Sri Lanka is the Best for Big Game Safaris outside
Africa. This in turn is part of a bigger branding that Sri Lanka is the Ultimate Island
Safari. I have also proposed branding a Sri Lankan Big Five to help get these stories
across.
A key challenge for tourism in Sri Lanka is to ensure that whale watching is done
responsibly for the safety of clients as well as the welfare of the marine mammals. As a
first step, MWS carry the code of conduct of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation
Society. A local marine biologist has also trained them. The tourism and conservation
authorities are also in dialogue to implement a whale watching code. This was
commented upon during World Travel Market in November 2010, by the new chairman
of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Dr. Nalaka Godahewa. I was also pleased
that he was quick to see the value of publicizing Sri Lanka as the Best for Big Game
outside Africa. I hope others will also use these tag lines because it is the big, catchy
stories that win Sri Lanka the much desired column inches in the international press.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Dr. Charles Anderson for answering questions and to Tara Wikramanayake
for copy editing.
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13. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). It’s Whale Time. [The Migration and
feeding strategies of Blue Blue Whales around Sri Lanka]. The Sunday Times Plus.
Sunday 26 December 2010. Features. Pages 3-4.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/101226/Plus/plus_06.html
The article centered around a remarkable observation of 25 Blue Whales migrating
together discusses alternate views on the presence of Blue Whales around Sri Lanka.
Awareness that Sri Lanka is the top spot in the world for seeing and photographing Blue
Whales began with a press blitz I began in May 2008. This hinged on the Anderson
hypothesis that the Blue Whales undertook an East-West migration between the Arabian
Sea off the Horn of Africa and the Bay of Bengal. I have likened it to a U –shaped
migration. However, on a global scale it can be viewed as a horizontal movement or if at
all as one with a very shallow U shape as the whales curve around the South of Sri
Lanka. The migration is driven by the seasonal presence of food: the krill upon which the
Blue Whales feed, typically in the top 60 meters of water, but they could be feeding down
to 300-400m. The strong winds of the South-west Monsoon physically displace water
away from the African coast. Water must well up from below to replace the water which
has been pushed away. The up-welling created, brings up nutrients which lead to a
blooming of phytoplankton which are in turn fed on by zooplankton such as krill and
creates a food chain for other marine animals. The Blue Whales return to feed on this
seasonal blooming of krill. Similarly, their journey to the Bay of Bengal would have been
triggered by a seasonal blooming of krill which would have been triggered by upwellings
created by the North-east Monsoon. In other words, the Blue Whales go to the areas
where the seasonally changing monsoon currents produce seasonally changing plankton
bloom areas where the South-west or North-east Monsoon has abated from.
Blue whales seem to be found most commonly along the continental slope, where the
relatively shallow inshore waters of the continental shelf drop away steeply to the ocean
depths. It is along this slope that local upwellings may occur and where plankton are
often concentrated. Where the continental shelf comes close to shore, it may also allow
the whales to come closer to the nutrient flow from a land mass which will create a food
chain close to shore. In Western Scotland, currents creating nutrient flows and food
chains resulted in massive fish stocks close to shore, which led to a large fishing industry.
We have a similar situation off the Kalpitiya Peninusla where it seems currents, nutrient
flows and the proximity of the continental shelf has created a large Yellow-fin Tuna
fishery close to shore. Where there are fish, there is a food chain. We can therefore also
find whales, whether they are baleen whales or toothed whales, feeding in their niche in
the food chain, close to shore in Sri Lanka off Mirissa, the Kalpitiya Peninsula and
Trincomalee. It is also my personal belief that deep water offer whales a higher degree of
maneuverability when facing predators. So the plankton rich deep waters close to the Sri
Lankan shore provide both food and safety.
In this article I want to explore the question of which theory is correct, Resident or
Migrant or both? The Anderson hypothesis which I publicized of an E-W migration
(shallow U-shape, for graphical dramatization by me) seemed to run contrary to the
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alternative belief that the Blue Whales were present all year round. Neither Dr. Anderson
nor I challenge the idea that some Blue Whales are present in Sri Lankan waters
throughout the year. Data going back several decades suggest that this is so. It is also
possible that such resident whales change (or migrate locally) from one coast line to
another to be on the lee-ward side of any prevailing monsoon. However, where Dr.
Anderson and I take a strong position is that the large majority of whales which are seen
during the period November/December to April are participating in a migration between
the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal as proposed by Dr. Anderson. I would emphasize
once again this does not preclude resident Blue Whales also being seen by the whale
watching boats. It appears, we are looking at two strategies used by the Blue Whales
found around Sri Lanka: a smaller resident group and a larger seasonal influx of
migratory Blue Whales. The fact that we have been observing directional movements
eastwards around November/December to January and westwards around March to April
seems to support the theory of the migrant Blue Whales. It also fits in with seasonality of
Blue Whale sightings and strandings in the Maldives. Also, if there was no migratory
influx, then on calm days in the ‘off-season’ we should see Blue Whales with the same
abundance/frequency as during the December to April season. But this is not the case.
However, there is some confusion that the theories “migrant versus resident” are
mutually exclusive. Furthermore, some prefer to believe that almost all of the Blue
Whales are present throughout the year. So much so that we were asked quite innocently
whether an observation of 25 individual Blue Whales traveling together on 5th November
2010 may point to the presence of Blue Whales being sedentary around Sri Lanka. On the
contrary, I think this is one of the most significant observations to support the Anderson
hypothesis. I received emails on this sighting from several people. Realizing how
significant this observation was, I asked Jetwing Lighthouse naturalist Anoma
Alagiyawadu who was on the boat for more information. In particular I enquired if any
directional movement had been observed.
I have copied below his account emailed to me. He has very sharply observed that the
whales were single (these would be adult males) or in pairs (mother and calf), although
moving together. Whether it is millions of Wildebeest bunched up on the Mara migration
or 300 elephants on a one kilometer quadrat during The Gathering at Minneriya, animals
still keep to their basic social units. In the case of Blue Whales it would be a lone male or
a mother with a calf. It should be borne in mind that Blue Whales can communicate
across hundreds or even over a thousand kilometers using infra sounds. Therefore, Blue
Whales a few kilometers apart, may in their spatial terms, be as close as humans are when
walking together a few feet apart. As a result, I had thought we may not see a physically
close together concentration of Blue Whales as was observed on 5th November 2010. I
did on one occasion see at least 8 simultaneous Blue Whale spouts in April 2008. Others
on the boat guessed there could be anything from fifteen to twenty Blue Whales. I could
only be sure that there were at least 8, but I knew the number was probably much more. I
suspect that was a group on the return migration.
Anoma Alagiyawadu was on his 234th whale watching trip, more than any other person
in Sri Lanka except the (Mirissa Water Sports) MWS crew. He is a trained naturalist
observer. His claim of 25 individual Blue Whales traveling together is a safe observation.
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He is a trained observer very aware of my preoccupation shared with Dr. Charles
Anderson to distinguish ‘sightings’ from ‘individuals’. But be aware that many claims of
20 plus Blue Whale sightings in a single session usually relate to multiple sightings of 4-
5 Blue Whales. Alagiyawadu, also commented that there were almost certainly many
more travelling together on that day. Anoma Alagiyawadu’s remarkable sailing began as
usual at 7.30am from the fishery harbour at Mirissa in the South of Sri Lanka, close to
Dondra Head, the island’s southern-most point. At 10.05am, they found a Bryde’s Whale
around 12.42 nautical miles from Mirissa. He writes “When we were coming back to
Mirissa, it was very windy. At 10.40am at a distance we spotted a few blows. We thought
they were Sperm Whales”. Alagiyawadu says they thought they were Sperm Whales at a
distance because the strong wind was keeping the blows short and probably slanted like
that of a Sperm Whale and not tall and straight as with a Blue Whale. I also suspect
because there appeared to be at least a few clustered together, sub-consciously, Sperm
Whales rather than the Blue Whales seemed the right conclusion.
He continues to say “Ten minutes later we recognized they were Blue Whales. We could
not believe we were seeing such a large group of Blue Whales. They were travelling
West to East. The current in the water was also running West to East. They were moving
a little bit fast, doing shallow dives, and looked like they were travelling on the surface.
We were 8.86 nautical miles from Mirissa with the water temperature at 83.20F. All the
whales were travelling close to each other, but either individually or in pairs. I counted 25
around me, but definitely there were more, I am sure of that’.
Wow! You can imagine how I felt reading this when Alagiyawadu finally emailed this in
response to questions from me and Dr. Anderson. The timing of the observation does
raise questions. Were they unusually early this year and if so why? Or is it that the
migration starts earlier than the December-January period which I had publicized earlier
in several previous articles? In November 2008, between the 7th and 30th, Blue Whales
sightings were reported on whale watching sailings. On the 30th November 2008, Anoma
Alagiyawadu reported what were potentially 9 different Blue Whales at four observation
points. Dr. Anderson commented in the Sri Lanka Wildife eNewsletter (September –
November 2008) that there was a time when he thought that the whales began to move
past Sri Lanka in November but the data from the Maldives had not supported it. It is
possible that the migrant whales may be arriving earlier than the December-January
period. Perhaps we have been missing the massed arrival in previous years because the
seas have been rough or there has not been much appetite to go out. This is possible but
more data is needed. Alagiyawadu, myself and others have sailed in October and
November, but more data is required than the few sailings so far to be able to draw
conclusions. Sightings and nil sightings are equally important and the data for the over
200 sailings are available on www.jetwingeco.com.
I suspect that as with some species of birds, the photographic records of whales, will
show that Sri Lanka has both resident and migratory individuals. I also suspect that in the
years to come, a large body of the data will come from pictures posted onto public sites
on the internet such as Flickr and Facebook. The automatic GPS encoding on future
compact cameras will give rise to a wealth of data to individually identify Blue Whales
and their movements. A Facebook or Flickr account acting as a portal for uploading
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images taken on commercial whale watching sailings will provide a wealth of data to
tracking the movement of Blue Whales. Interested land lubbers could become amateur
marine biologists.
In my next article in this sequence of two articles, I will discuss the question of whether
the whale watching will be better at Mirissa or Trincomalee. I will also touch briefly on
the need for responsible whale watching.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Dr. Charles Anderson for answering questions and to Tara Wikramanayake
for copy editing.
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12. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Whale Watching Hotspots: Mirissa, Kalpitiya Peninsula and Trincomalee. Ahasa, the in-flight magazine of Mihin
Air. August 2010. Page 26-29.
A discussion on the locations and seasons for whale watching in Sri Lanka.
I have written many articles to develop whale watching in Sri Lanka. The purpose of this
article is to synthesize and update what I have written before to provide a simple
convenient summary for whale watching.
In May 2008, I took the story to the world that the South of Sri Lanka is the best place in
the world to see and photograph Blue Whales. I drew on a research insight by British
Marine biologist Dr Charles Anderson, who is based in the Maldives and offered
conclusive evidence based on field work,
In March 2010, once again drawing on an insight by Dr Charles Anderson, I explained
that the seas off the Kalpitiya Peninsula is the third apex in a Whale Watching Triangle in
Sri Lanka. I made a scientific case for this by using ocean floor mapping data which had
become available only in October 2009. The third site, of the three whale watching
locations is Trincomalee. All three sites are good because at these locations the edge of
the continental shelf is close to the shore. The presence of deep water close to shore
offers marine mammals the protection of deep water whilst being close to a nutrient flow.
In the case of animals such as the Sperm Whale, it also means their preferred hunting
depth of 400m is close to shore.
When should I visit?
For Mirissa and Kalpitiya, the best time for the Southern (and Western) seas is between
November and April, when they are relatively calm (and outside of the south-west
monsoon during which the seas are too rough for going out). In calm seas the 'blows' or
'spouts' of marine mammals and the splashing of dolphins can be seen at a much greater
distance than when the seas are choppy. In some years the South-west monsoon come
early and the whale watching window closes by mid April.
In Trincomalee the North-east Monsoon finishes by February and when the South-west
Monsoon is blowing, the 'season' off Trincomalee has begun. However, the data collected
by naturalists by John Keells Hotels and Jetwing Eco Holidays in the period April to May
2010 suggests that the hypothesis by Dr Charles Anderson of a U-shaped migration
between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea is correct. This means that sightings off
Trincomalee should peak around March and by May almost all the Blue Whales may be
gone. Whale watchers must also note that although on land there may not be strong
winds, the South-west Monsoon is powerful and as you head further out to seas during
East Coast 'season', choppy seas may be encountered. In May 2010, I found myself off
Trincomalee with a boatman who insisted we returned to shore as the off-shore winds
picked up.
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From what we know at present, it seems the window of time for seeing Blue Whales still
remains as between December to April. It may not be a year round event.
Are there peak months when sightings are at their best?
There are peaks in the movement of whales in December-January and again in April. In
January the whales are passing the South of Sri Lanka, eastward to the Bay of Bengal. In
April, the whales are travelling westward, past the South of Sri Lanka, across the
Maldives and on to up-wellings off Somalia, in the Arabian Sea around the Horn of
Africa. The peak in Trincomalee will be when the whales have 'arrived' which should be
around February and March. Off Kalpitiya, we still don't have enough data for a pattern
on Blue Whales. But the period from February to March has so far been good for records
of Sperm Whales.
Where should I go whale watching in Sri Lanka?
Mirissa
The seas South of Dondra Head are the best for whale and dolphin watching in Sri Lanka.
This is because the continental shelf is narrowest around Sri Lanka to the South of
Dondra (the southernmost point in Sri Lanka). The whale watching infrastructure is also
at its best here.
Depths of one kilometre and deeper are found relatively close to the South of Dondra,
approximately six kilometres or 40 minutes away. This may be the reason why both Blue
Whales and Sperm Whales can be seen within sight of shore. Sperm Whales dive to
depths of one kilometre or more to feed on animals such as squid which live in submarine
canyons. As deep water is found close to Dondra Head, it is more likely that Sperm
Whales will stray close to shore. Blue Whales feed on krill found within the first 30
meters of depth. But they will use deeper water when travelling. The depths and
availability of food to the South of Dondra Head seem to create conditions favourable for
seeing both species close to shore. Elsewhere in Sri Lanka (except Kalpitiya and
Trincomalee) the continental shelf is further out and therefore whale watchers may have
to travel five or six times that distance to reach the one kilometre depth contour.
The continental shelf is defined as the depth contour or isobar of 200m. The location of
the continental shelf is important as the depth of water rapidly reaches a depth of one and
then two kilometres or deeper beyond this.
Kalpitiya Peninsula
The seas of Kalpitiya Peninsula became known for its large pods of Spinner Dolphins
from around 2008, thanks to Dallas Martensyn and his co-investors who developed
Alankuda Beach (www.alankuda.com). But everyone stayed within an area bounded by a
reef, where the 'dolphin line' was found. No one made a concerted effort to travel off-
shore of the reef to look for whales for developing commercial whale watching until I set
out in March 2010, inspired by Dr Charles Anderson who thought the continental shelf
may be closer than shown by published marine maps. I have found Sperm Whales
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traveling on a North-South Axis along the 400m depth contour (E79 35). This is their
typical feeding depth. With my team I also photographed a Blue Whale and rare pelagic
seabirds before the window for marine exploration closed in May 2010. However, after I
ran the story in March 2010, a few others also ventured offshore of the reef and reported
whales. Of a small handful of recent sightings of Orca off Sri Lanka, almost all of them
have been from Kalpitiya.
Trincomalee
Trincomalee has been known for a long time for its Blue Whales. Whales come very
close to shore because of a submarine canyon which comes into one of the deepest
natural harbours in the world. In March 2010, the first post war effort (led by John Keells
Hotels) to explore Trincomalee for commercial whale watching were explored. Most of
the Blue Whales here may be those passing the South coast, it remains to be seen whether
Trincomalee will offer better viewing than from sailings off Mirissa.
What is the best location for whale watching off Sri Lanka
For a broad variety of species and a ninety percent chance of seeing a Blue Whale,
Mirrisa remains the best option. Also the infrastructure for whale watching is best
developed here. From Kalpitiya, the whale watching is done from 18 footer speed boats.
The frequency of sightings is less, but there is a greater sense of adventure. Trincomalee
still has some issues with security and I have been turned away by a naval boat near
Swami Rock. But I suspect these issues will be ironed out fairly soon as the government
is keen for tourism to develop on the East Coast.
What am I likely to see?
The notes here relate to what can be seen during the season. Blue Whales are a strong
possibility, with Mirissa offering a ninety per cent chance. Pods of Spinner Dolphins are
encountered regularly off Mirissa and very frequently off the Kalpitiya Peninsula. Sperm
Whales are seen regularly off both Mirissa and Kalpitiya. Together with Jetwing
Lighthouse Hotel naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu, I had a one hundred percent strike rate
in April 2008, for Blue Whales. Data is still thin on the ground for Trincomalee.
I have had a few sailings where as many as 5 Blue Whales were in the field of view at the
same time confirming that at least 5 individuals are around the boat. In most parts of the
world, seeing one Blue Whale is difficult. On one memorable trip when I was researching
the Best for Blue story, with Mirissa Water Sports team and my naturalists, we had 8
Blue Whales simultaneously 'blowing' around the boat.
Let me provide another real example of how good it can be on certain days. On a tour led
by Dr Charles Anderson, we had eight species of cetaceans on the 1st and 2nd April
2009. On the 2nd April, in the space of an hour we had a Bryde's Whale, Blue Whale and
six Sperm Whales. In those first two days of April we also had Spinner, Indo-Pacific
Bottlenosed, Pantropical Spotted and Striped Dolphins.
What about accommodation?
Most whale watchers set off from the Mirissa Fishery Harbour. The coastal strip from
Hikkaduwa, through Galle, Unawatuna, Koggala to Mirissa has a broad range of
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accommodation including some of the most luxurious villas and boutique hotels in the
island. This entire strip is within commuting distance from the Fishery Harbour at
Mirissa. Galle is approximately a 40 minute drive.
The Kalpitiya Peninsula has a smaller number of options for accommodation, but this
may change as more budget and boutique hotels are coming up. Alankuda Beach which
supported my research is at the high end and has the most experienced boatmen.
Whom do I book with?
Most foreign visitors book with a tour operator or their local hotel. Residents in Sri Lanka
may prefer to contact the boat operators directly. The two main established operators of
boats from Mirissa are Mirissa Water Sports and Walkers Tours who run the boats of the
Fishery Harbours Corporation in the south. Dolphin Beach handle boats for Kalpitiya. In
Trincomalee, the Chaaya Blue (a John Keels Hotel) will arrange boats. All of these
operators provide visitors with life jackets.
Where can I get more information?
Almost everything you want to know about whale watching can be found on
www.jetwingco.com
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11. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Deep Blue. July - August 2010. Pages
34-35. Volume 5, Issue 6. ISSN 1800-0746.
Exploring the seas off Kalpitiya in search of whales. Reflections on the first focussed
effort to develop Kalpitiya for whale watching.
We were in the vast emptiness. I scanned the vastness of the Indian Ocean around me
with my Swarovski 7 x 42 binoculars. I steadied myself by holding the canopy with one
hand as a gentle swell rocked the boat. As the rising sun heated the land and sea creating
a differential in temperature, the wind would rise and waves would buffet the relatively
tiny 18 foot boat we were in. But that would come later. We had left early when weak
starlight could still struggle down to the earth and we had come out 30 kilometers west
from Alankuda Beach where Dallas Martenstyn and his team were hosting me. I had
food, water, four tanks of fuel, two GPS units and depth charts which had only become
available in October 2009 as a result if exploration for oil and gas on the sea bed.
In the seas South of Mirissa, I was used to going in large boats with a crew of at least
four. The sea lanes were busy from hulking container ships to small trawlers. Out here,
far beyond the shelf, there was no one. Just us. Rohan Susantha one of Alankuda Beach's
boatmen and me.
I was the first person from Sri Lankan tourism to push over the reef which ran parallel to
the Kalpitiya Peninsula and begin a determined search for whales and pelagic seabirds. I
may probably be the first person ever to have come out with the oil exploration depth
data and a GPS, to try and understand where the best strike rate would be for cetaceans.
On this trip, we were looking for Blue Whales. I already had sightings on two successive
days of a pod of Sperm Whales at the 400 meter depth isocline fairly close to shore. I was
not expecting to see many Blue Whales as I have encountered South of Mirissa. Dr
Charles Anderson had hypothesized a U shaped migration of Blue Whales between the
Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal which would take Blue Whales around the island's
coast South of Dondra. There was no prediction as to why Blue Whales should be out
here other than for a few randomly scattered individuals because of the rich feeding off
the coast. But my guess was that any Blue Whales seeking food would be close to the
edge of the shelf where the marine food chain appeared to be the richest. But I had to
come out to 'the deep' as the fishermen called it. Only by running a series of deep sea
transects could I field test what I had already concluded as the best search area.
Susantha had his head covered in a shawl to protect him from sun burn. He looked like a
Bedoudin in the Arabian desert. He narrowed his eyes and watched me silently as I took a
GPS reading and examined our position. "Two kilometers deep" I announced and traced
out with my finger the contour line on the map. Susantha nodded thoughtfully and looked
at me to announce the next stage of the game plan. I had been back ten years and still had
not invested enough time to acquire a sufficiently wide grasp of Sinhalese to have a deep
conversation. I was curious to know what Susantha thought of my relentless
determination to find whales. What did he think of me? I suppose I never will know but I
could see he was enjoying the adventure just as much as me.
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Many more hours of searching drew a blank and with each North-South transect we ran
we pulled in closer and closer to the peninsula and within the safety net of mobile
telephony. Until I began the search for whales everyone had stayed in-shore of the reef,
within 4-6 kilometers of the shore to watch dolphins. Now people were beginning to
come out off shore of the reef to search for whales. I did eventually find my first Blue
Whale off Kalpitiya. But that was on a later trip with my colleague Riaz Cader when I
was once again on the 400m depth isobath at E 79 37.
On that week day, I had the privilege of being the only person to be out snorkeling on
Barr Reef. As we pulled westward again I observed a thin white line of sand recede into a
blue sky mirrored below by a blue sea. I was lucky to have two island homes. Sri Lanka
where I was born and Britain where I had lived the first fifteen years of my adult life. If
have fallen in love with the sea, it would have been that March and April in 2010 as I
searched the Indian Ocean for the giants on the planet. I began to sense how truly Sri
Lanka was an oceanic island. How the richness of its myriad landscapes could only be
rivaled by the other island I had grown to love, Britain. In the months to come, I knew
my Kalpitiya sea journeys would be replaced by winter walks to watch wild geese flying
in from Iceland, escaping the grip of the Arctic ice.
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10. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Why Kalpitiya is Sri Lanka's top spot for pelagic seabirds. Hi Magazine. Series 8, Volume 1. Pages 228-231.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/birds/asian-pelagics.html
An explanation as to why Kalpitiya is so good for pelagic seabirds and a clarification
that the depths off the Kalpitiya Peninsula were not mapped until October 2009.
On Sunday 2nd May 2010, in the Sunday Times (the Sri Lankan newspaper) I broke the
story that the Kalpitiya Peninsula is the best place in Sri Lanka for seeing and
photographing pelagic seabirds. Pelagic refers to the open sea and pelagic seabirds are
oceanic seabirds which rarely stray on to land, other than to nest and often so on remote
oceanic islands. A fuller version of the article is on www.jetwingeco.com and the version
published in the Sunday Times is on www.sundaytimes.lk. In this article, rather than
repeat what was published in the print edition of the Sunday Times, I will carry a key
facts section and a series of snippets about the birds seen and an account of the research
behind the scenes.
Why the Kalpitiya Peninsula is the best for pelagics - Quick Facts My quick facts are based on my field observations, an examination of charts showing
depths and a wildlife photographer's intuition. I appreciate that my views may not be
shared by others studying marine wildlife. I give below a series of bullet points as to why
I think the Kalpitiya Peninsula is the best for pelagic seabirds in Sri Lanka.
* The seas off the Kalpitiya Peninsula, in the area where the depth rapidly plunges from
200m to 800m, seem particularly rich in the marine food chain evidenced by the large
numbers of seabirds, marine mammals, flying fish (and commercially fished Yellow-fin
Tuna) which are seen during the period when the seas are calm (November to April).
* The continental slope runs on a North-South axis approximately parallel to the
Kalpitiya Peninsula. This creates a natural linear flyway for rare seabirds of the open
ocean (pelagics).
* The 400m depth line can be reached easily within half an hour from 18 footer boats
which are available for leisure use. The ease of access and the ability to track birds flying
in parallel between the E 79 038 and E 79 035 longitudinal lines, makes viewing and
photography easy. Bad weather brings pelagic birds sufficiently close to for shore-based
sea watching. During the South-west Monsoon, rare pelagic sea birds may be seen close
to, or over the shore or even landing on the beach in an exhausted state.
* 400m is the typical hunting depth of Sperm Whales. Clearly there is something about
this depth at which squid are found which results in a food chain which extends to the
surface making it rich for seabirds and fisher folk. Sperm Whales are being seen much
more regularly since I drew attention to their presence in an article in March 2010. I have
also found rare seabirds regularly around the 400m depth isobath.
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* The area near the tip of the peninsula around N 08 15, between E 79 35 and E 79 38
seems particularly good for encountering flocks of rare seabirds. This may have to do
with the underlying oceanic topography and oceanic currents mixing with the nutrient
flow from the Puttalam Lagoon creating a rich food chain. There may also be a nutrient
flow from mainland India which further enriches this area. The South-west Monsoon will
also blow in nutrients from the West into the North-west of Sri Lanka.
* During stormy weather, especially during the South-west Monsoon, Kandakuliya Beach
may provide a landing ground for exhausted seabirds. Using a telescope, it may be
possible to pick up pelagics out at sea.
Top Pelagic Birds
Long-tailed Skua
On Sunday 11th April 2010 I was with my colleague Riaz Cader. We were looking for a
Blue Whale which had slipped beneath the water for a third time. My attention was
drawn to a pale bird with a black cap. We had good views and took some close
photographs of what may well be the second accepted record from Sri Lanka of a Long-
tailed Skua. The Skuas are a family of birds closely related to gulls. They are known to
steal food from other birds in what is known as kleptoparasitism. There are seven species
of Skuas in the world of which the Great, Pomarine, Arctic (Parasitic) and Long-tailed
Skuas breed in the Northern hemisphere. They migrate to the South during winter. The
Chilean, Brown and South Polar Skuas breed in the Southern hemisphere. The Great and
Chilean Skuas have not been recorded off Sri Lanka.
Persian (Arabian) Shearwater
I first photographed these when I was at sea (on 4 April 2010) researching pelagic tours
with Shiromal Cooray (Managing Director, Jetwing Travels) and Anne Shih, a keen
amateur photographer. This may well be the second accepted record from Sri Lanka
although its possible that there may be two or three more records of it. Nirma, Maya and
Amali who stayed back to enjoy Alankuda Beach missed out on seeing these birds which
may not have been seen off Sri Lanka until 2010. I have seen them on three different
days, off Kalpitiya. Devaka Seneviratne also photographed them in Kalpitiya on 24th
April 2010. Dr Charles Anderson also photographed them off Mirissa when whale
watching in the first week of April. He has never recorded them around the Maldives. He
believes that their presence off Sri Lanka in 2010 may be evidence of an El Nino year.
Two sub-species of Persian Shearwater are recognised. One from the Arabian Sea and
another from the Comoro Islands.
Lesser and Brown Noddy
Noddies are infrequently seen off the seas of Sri Lanka. On 5 April 2010, I spoke to a
person who has been engaged in research on seabirds for at least two years. He said he
had not had a 'tickable' view of a Noddy and the only view he has had so far is of a very
distant view at Adam's Bridge of Mannar. This highlights that close views of Noddies are
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special. I have encountered them a few times when whale watching for Blue Whales off
Mirissa. However it was the fast 18 footer boats from Alankuda Beach which gave me
easy access to approach these birds and photograph them. I suspect those who go to
Kalpitiya will find it not too difficult to see and photograph them at the right time of the
year. One flock we saw held both the Lesser and Brown Noddy. One Lesser Noddy tried
thrice to land on the soft canopy of our boat when I was at sea with Riaz Cader. The
Brown Noddy has paler upper inner-wing contrasting with a darker outer-wing. It is also
a bird with a heavier bill and a more laboured flight. It has a pale forehead. The Lesser
Noddies we have been seeing have shown extensive white on the forehead sometimes
extending towards the nape.
Sooty Tern
In the Sunday Times Plus article of 2nd May 2010 I boldly predicted that Kalpitiya
Peninsula would remain good, if not better, for seeing rare seabirds when stormy seas
made it impossible to go out to sea. In fact, I claimed that for various reasons that the
Kalpitiya Peninsula is the best place in Sri Lanka for shore-based sea watching especially
during bad weather. To test this theory I arrived on 19th May with a team of four staff on
our way back from Trincomalee where we had tracked the 1,000m depth line for whales.
The next day we sea watched from the boat house of Alankuda Beach
(www.alankuda.com).
We decided to go to Kandakuliya which was a more Northerly location on the peninsula
which we could access in a vehicle. I thought our chance of seeing storm blown pelagics
would be better. There was even a chance of finding an exhausted Sooty Tern on the
beach as Howard Martenstyn had found at Alankuda Beach. To our amazement within
five minutes of our arrival, Ganganath Weerasinghe spotted a dark tern landing on the
beach. It was an exhausted Sooty Tern which had nearly completed assuming adult
plumage. In Sri Lanka the Sooty Tern is considered a passage migrant arriving with the
advent of the South-west Monsoon. It also participates in the movement of thousands of
Bridled Terns which take place past the West Coast peaking in August and September. It
breeds on oceanic islands, coral reefs etc. The nearest breeding sites to Sri Lanka are in
the Maldives, Laccadives and the Andamans.
Bridled Tern (Brown-winged Tern)
Along the west coast a mass migration of Bridled Terns together with other species of sea
faring birds takes place with a peak in the months of August and September. This was
first discovered and written about by Thilo Hoffmann and subsequently also by A. Van
der Bergh. Since then a detailed picture has been built due to the perseverance of local
ornithologist Rex De Silva, who has studied the migration for a period of over thirteen
years. Skuas, Petrels, Storm-petrels and Shearwaters are also seen with the migrating
birds. The Bridled Tern is seen fairly regularly in small numbers during the whale
watching season in the South and North-west from November to April. In May I
observed them coming very close (within a kilometer) to Swami Rock in Trincomalee.
When the South-west Monsoon arrives they can be seen gliding over the beach on the
Kalpitiya Peninsula and Chilaw Sand Spit. The much rarer Sooty Tern is distinguished by
blacker upperparts and the white supercilium not extending behind the eye.
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Behind the scenes Behind the fun and glamour of breaking major wildlife stories, there is a lot of hard work
and a team of people. The acknowledgements in my books refer to seven categories of
people who make it possible for me to do what I do. In this article I will comment on the
specifics of the research off the Kalpitiya Peninsula. Two stories have been broken by me
in relation to the Kalpitiya Peninsula. The first one (Sunday Times Plus, 7 March 2010)
was on identifying Kalpitiya as one of three whale watching sites, the third apex of Sri
Lanka's 'Whale Watching Triangle'. The second was on why Kalpitiya is the best for
watching pelagic seabirds (Sunday 2 May 2010). Both of these relied on field
observations and data on the continental shelf which had become available after October
2009 as a result of oil and gas exploration.
The field work itself simply would not have been possible without the support of Dallas
Martnestyn (the man who put Kalpitiya's Spinner Dolphins on the map) and his co-
investors of Alankuda Beach (www.alankuda.com). They hosted my team with food,
accommodation and boats. There is a parallel here with the support of Jetwing
Lighthouse from April 2008 to April 2009 to me and the Jetwing Eco Holidays team to
position the South of Sri Lanka as the best place to see and photograph Blue Whales.
The field work itself is rather tough and anyone who has been out to sea in rough weather
in an 18 footer speed boat will understand the bone jarring ride when running through on-
coming waves at speed. The hours are long and the boatmen at Alankuda, especially
Rohan Susantha never complained when I would clock up at times nine and a half hours
out at sea. At times I rode out 30 km due west from Alankuda to survey the area for
cetaceans and seabirds. Alankuda Beach always made sure I was well stocked with food,
water, soft drinks and at least three full tanks of fuel for the outboard motor engines. To
keep up with office work, emails had to be checked daily, often at 5am and at night, and
when being driven back, however tired I was.
On one trip to Alankuda my vehicle's battery short circuited and the front caught fire.
Fortunately no one was injured and the research for marine wildlife tourism continued
with only a modest delay.
The shape and location of the continental shelf and slope There is a misconception that the shape and location of the continental shelf is shown on
the British Admiralty Charts. The Admiralty Chart No 828 (Cochin to Vishakapatnam)
published in June 1977 (based on Indian Chart 32 published in November 1974) revised
in April 1974 does not even show the depth isobath off-shore of the Kalpitiya Peninsula!
There is a gap in this area between the depth lines on the West coast and where it is
shown again to the South-west of India. In May 2008, when I first began to publicise the
South of Sri Lanka for whale watching, I created a graphic which interpolated incorrectly
how these lines connect and showed the continental shelf being further out than it is. This
error was further reinforced by my inspection of Admiralty Chart No 1586 (Pamban to
Cape Comorin) showing what appears to be shallow depths around Kalpitiya. Another
chart showing the Kalpitiya Peninsula which I examined included the Omega
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International chart series of the Indian Ocean. The Chart of the Bay of Bengal
(1:3,500,000) produced under the superintendence of the Chief Hydrographer of the
Government of India, from the latest information in the Naval Hydrographic Office
1977). This also reinforced the impression that the depth lines veered away from the
peninsula and that the edge of the shelf did not run parallel or close to the peninsula. In
fact, the position of the 1,000m and 2,000m depth lines on this map is also reflected in a
recent map published by the National Hydrographic Office, NARA in 2008. The chart is
titled "Arabian Sea Eastern Part" to a scale of 1:3,400,000 and has text in Sinhala and
English.
In April 2009, Dr Charles Anderson pointed out that a notation above some of the depth
numbers on Admiralty Chart No 1586 meant that whoever was taking the depth sounding
had 'run out of rope'. So a depth of 123 m marked in this way could be 124m or even
2,000m. Dr Charles Anderson suspected the presence of marine life indicated that the
shelf was close. But it was not something which had been shown then (or even now) on
the British Admiralty charts, when we had this discussion in April 2009. However,
fishermen, sport anglers and divers had intuitively guessed that it was close because of
the presence of Yellow-fin Tuna and other deep water fish.
In my article in the Sunday Times Plus on 7th March 2010, I stated that the depths and
shape of the continental shelf and continental slope, with any degree of accuracy, were
only revealed for the first time in the chart published in a NARA report in October 2009
after the sea floor was mapped for oil and gas. I was probably the first person from the
public to see this (even marine biologists seemed to be unaware of this data) and use it to
make a scientific case for why the Kalpitiya Peninsula is a whale watching hotspot, based
on the insight by Dr Charles Anderson.
I may have been partly wrong about when the depth lines were first shown accurately.
Alfons van Hoof had read my article in the Sri Lanka Wildlife eNewsletter. On 15 May
2010 he drew my attention to the topographical maps prepared by the ex USSR army
who had extended the contour lines out to sea. At the time of writing, I have not been
able to examine the full map and ascertain the date of publication. But a 'cut out' he had
emailed me shows the 400m depth isobath close to the peninsula as shown by NARA's
chart of October 2009. However the 1,000m depth isobath which I consider as an
important benchmark for marine mammal watching is shown further away and veering
away as in the Admiralty charts. So the October 2009 depth chart given to me by NARA
remains the first definitive map of the depths off the Kalpitiya Peninsula. Even if the ex
USSR army data was completely accurate, this would not change the substance of my
story in the Sunday Times Plus of 7th March 2010. Whether I had been led to the NARA
data or the Russian data, the thrust of my story would have been the same. It also would
have been the same whether I had been given either set of data before I had set out to sea
to demonstrate that one can go in search of whales beyond the reef of the Kalpitiya
Peninsula and find them with a reasonable strike rate and to explain why off-shore of the
reef is good for whales. I certainly was not the first to see whales off Kalpitiya and
neither did I 'discover the continental shelf'. But I was certainly the one to act on the lead
by Dr Charles Anderson and to do the grunt work in the field and break the story with a
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credible explanation as to why the Kalpitiya Peninsula can be a third apex of a whale
watching triangle in Sri Lanka.
Now that I have explained what data exists to explain the location and shape of the
continental shelf and slope off the Kalpitiya Peninsula it is easy for people to say, we
always knew. As for the Anderson intuition that Kalpitiya can be developed for whale
watching, well again, people can now say, oh we always knew. But no one made an effort
before February 2010, to seriously look at Kalpitiya for commercially watching whales
(as opposed to focusing on dolphins) and looking for pelagic seabirds as a part of a
wildlife watching tour.
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9. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Off to see seabirds. Why the Kalpitiya Peninsula is the best site in Sri Lanka for pelagic seabirds. The Sunday
Times Plus. Sunday 2 May 2010. Features. Page 6.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100502/Plus/plus_15.html
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/birds/asian-pelagics.html
Explains why the Kalpitiya Peninsula is the best site in Sri Lanka for pelagic seabirds.
He also introduces the concept of the Wildlife Diagonal.
Key Facts
* The continental shelf runs on a North-South axis approximately parallel to the Kalpitiya
Peninsula. This creates a natural linear flyway for rare seabirds of the open ocean
(pelagics).
* The seas off the Kalpitiya Peninsula seem particularly rich in the marine food chain
evidenced by the large numbers of seabirds, marine mammals, flying fish (and
commercially fished Yellow-fin Tuna) which are seen during the period when the seas
are calm (November to April)
* The 400m depth line can be reached easily within half an hour from 18 footer boats
which are available for leisure use. The ease of access and the ability to track birds flying
in parallel between the E 79 038 and E 79 035 longitudinal line, makes viewing and
photography easy. Bad weather may bring pelagic birds sufficiently close to for shore-
based sea watching.
* The area in line with the tip of the peninsula around N 08 15, between E 79 35 and E 79
38 seems particularly good for encountering flocks of rare seabirds. This may have to do
with the underlying oceanic topography and oceanic currents mixing with the nutrient
flow from the Puttalam Lagoon creating a rich food chain.
------------------------------------------
The setting sun had sculpted a vast sea monster edged with fire over the horizon. Pink
candy floss clouds were gradually engulfed by the encroaching darkness. Flashes of
lightning illuminated a seemingly primordial world. As sunlight was about to be totally
extinguished Rohan Susantha, the Alankuda Beach (www.alankuda.com) boatman
opened the throttle and we sliced through a rising swell to return from another session at
sea from Alankuda Beach. I had been out with my colleague Riaz Cader to develop
pelagic tours for seabirds and marine mammals. We had a good session with a rarely seen
Lesser Noddy (a kind of tern) making three abortive attempts to land on the canopy on
our boat.
The next morning's session, five hours out at sea, was the stuff of dreams. Over five
hundred Spinner Dolphins cavorted around our boat, as we headed out to the Sperm
Whale hunting line, the 400m depth isocline at E 79 36. The dolphins spun and raced and
bow rode for thirty exhilarating minutes before I asked Susantha to peel away in case our
presence caused stress. In deeper water, at E 79 35, N 08 15, for me what is a seabird hot
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spot, I motioned Susantha to pull over to photograph a Persian Shearwater, a rare pelagic
bird, whose second record in Sri Lanka was by me only a week ago. "Whale" yelled out
the hawk-eyed Susantha distracting Riaz and me from the Persian Shearwater. The Blue
Whale slipped into the water on its third dive and we circled around looking for it. A bird
with a pale head and a black cap floating in the water at a distance caught my eye. I knew
it was something very special and I told Susantha much to Riaz's surprise we must
abandon the Blue Whale for the bird in the water. It turned out to be a Long-tailed Skua,
possibly the second record for Sri Lanka (if another previous record is accepted) and the
fourth or fifth record for the Indian Sub-continent. The show by the Spinner Dolphins, a
Blue Whale with Persian Shearwaters flying over it or the second Sri Lanka record of a
Long-tailed Skua are three things of which a marine biologist or enthusiast would have
settled for just one. We had all three in one amazing pelagic session in one morning on
Sunday 11th April.
In the last week of March we went public of my plans to return to the UK permanently. I
informed my team that my last field project of eco-tourism product development would
be to provide a firm foundation for pelagic tours for seabirds. For this we needed a site
where there were good underlying reasons as to why seabirds could be seen with a fair
degree of reliability. This required field work and know how. Although at least one other
company had advertised pelagic tours, for various reasons I knew there were weaknesses
with their chosen location and I had to find a site which could be used even if the seas
were too rough to go out to the open sea.
On 1 April 2010 I sailed out of Mirissa with Jetwing Lighthouse naturalist Anoma
Alagiyawadu marking the second anniversary of my sailing on 1st April 2008 which saw
me leading the field work and a media campaign to firmly position the South of Sri
Lanka as the best place for seeing Blue Whales. Also with me one the boat were my
colleagues Hiran and Shiromal Cooray who were hoping for Blue Whales. My thoughts
were however on pelagic seabirds. Pelagic refers to the open seas and pelagic seabirds are
species of seabirds which do not come to land unless bad weather forces them close to
shore or to the shore to rest when exhausted. I discussed with Anoma how the sightings
of seabirds were progressing and he told me he had already seen the first shearwaters, a
sign that the South-west Monsoon would come early. A skua, possibly a Pomarine or
Arctic Skua flew overhead and I pointed it out to Hiran, regretting later that I was
showing and not photographing.
My thoughts on how to go after the pelagic seabirds had been influenced on my time out
at sea from Mirissa with British marine biologist Dr Charles Anderson. It had been
documented in the literature, perhaps for 20-30 years that the South-west Monsoon brings
in these rare seabirds. But the conversations out at sea with an experienced scientist like
Dr Anderson somehow added the extra ingredient to make me realise that it may be
possible to pursue the pelagics rather than leave it to chance. But I had a problem. From
Mirissa, the sightings of pelagics were random and improved only when conditions
started to become rough. When it was really rough we could not go out at all and the
continental shelf although close to Dondra only pinched in there. Elsewhere it widened
out again and shore-based watching did not seem attractive.
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By April 2009, I had already homed in on what could be the site for the commercial
development of pelagic tours. This was the Kalpitiya Peninsula. Once again there was a
link with Dr Charles Anderson who had led me onto the story that Southern Sri Lanka
was the best for Blue Whales. I had followed one of his leads to photograph the Pink
Dolphins (Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins) in the Puttalam Lagoon. On 7th March
2010 in the Sunday Times, following another lead by Charles I had explained why
Kalpitiya will be the third apex of a whale watching triangle with Trincomalee and
Mirissa. A key factor for its potential for whale watching and pelagic birds was the
location of the edge of the continental shelf being close and running along a North-South
axis, practically parallel to the Kalpitiya Peninsula. When I was doing my field work to
research why Kalpitiya was a marine mammal watching hot spot I had noticed other
factors which would make it ideal for pelagic seabirds. The North-South axis of the
continental shelf created a natural linear flyway, close to land for rare seabirds. The
peninsula also had a reef which broke the force of the open ocean and which may at times
allow pelagic seabird watching boats to go out when the open seas was too rough. There
were records of exhausted pelagic birds (Sooty Terns photographed by Howard
Martenstyn) resting on the beach which meant when the seas were really rough, shore-
based pelagic seabird watching would be possible. I had also noticed that I was seeing
anything from 5 to 10 times more seabirds off Kalpitiya as I was off Mirissa. I was seeing
that many times more flying fish as well once I reached the 400m depth isocline (at E 79
36). The presence of large flocks of Spinner Dolphins and birds such as Little Terns
suggested that it was a very rich feeding ground. I was sure that when the South-west
Monsoon began to blow Kalpitiya would be the place to go in search of pelagic seabirds.
It is not that others had not looked here before. On 12 April, the day after my Long-tailed
Skua sighting I chanced upon an article by Rex de Silva which I had first read when it
was first published in the Oriental Bird Club's Sri Lanka special bulleting in 1997. In it he
mentions Talawila in the Kalpitiya Peninsula. Rex has been one of the leading
personalities in studying seabirds in Sri Lanka and has written many papers and delivered
many lectures. I had been inspired by listening to his lectures organised by the Field
Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) and as an A Level student I had assisted with
shore-based counting of the mass migration of Brown-winged Terns, a study which he
did for thirteen years. Early pioneers such as Rex were handicapped by certain
constraints. Most significant of these was the cost of going out to sea. In those days and
when I first began to explore whale watching, hiring a boat was expensive because one
had to effectively hire a fishing boat and pay for the average value of a day's catch.
Furthermore the boat were seldom suitably outfitted for birders. In the early days there
were no mobile GPS units available for navigating out of sight of land and for recording
accurate coordinates of sightings. Furthermore with specific reference to the Kalpitiya
Peninsula the location and the shape of the continental shelf was a guess until exploration
for oil resulted in the first sea depth contour charts in October 2009 which were given to
me by NARA when I was researching the Kalpitiya whale watching story.
Access to the seas off Kalpitiya Peninsula changed dramatically when boats became
available for leisure thank to Dallas Martenstyn and his co-investors who set up
Alankuda Beach, a barefoot luxury resort in Alankuda. Dallas had put Kalpitiya on the
map for dolphin watching. I first visited Alankuda in April 2009 with Dr Charles
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Anderson it was already known for its dolphins. Dallas was aware that the availability of
boats for leisure use off Mirissa though Mirissa Water Sports after the Boxing Day
Tsunami and a research insight by Charles had led me to taking the Sri Lanka is Best for
Blue Whale story. Dallas suggested that if I wanted to chase up anymore leads, the
Jetwing Eco Holidays team will be supported by Alankuda Beach with free food and
accommodation and the use of the boats and their experienced boatmen. I was the right
man in the right place at the right time to make a clear case for why Kalpitiya should also
be Sri Lanka's preferred site for pelagic seabirds. I began by exploring first the Pink
Dolphin story and the whale watching story off Kalpitiya thank to the field work support
of Dallas and his investors at Alankuda Beach.
In May 2008, I had taken a well researched story world-wide that the South of Sri Lanka
was the best place in the world to see Blue Whales. In the short space of two years, this
story and subsequent follow ups (over 70 press 'events' to date by my team) saw a Blue
Whale watching industry in Sri Lanka becoming firmly established. My open release
article of May 2008 which positioned Sri Lanka for Blue Whale watching concluded with
the following. "The success of whale watching will be closely parallel the development
of pelagic cruises for seabird watching. This will also contribute a wealth of
ornithological data. At present most Sri Lankan birders have not seen a Pomarine Skua.
One morning we saw over forty. The development of pelagic cruises for seabird watching
will have to be another story".
This is the 'another story'. April 2010 would be my last chance to research Kalpitiya as a
site for pelagic seabirds. In February and early March I had been seeing pelagics such as
Brown-winged Terns. But I needed a few more special birds and I knew I would have to
put on a few trips in March and April to cement the story.
On 4th April 2010, four days of rough seas had mellowed into a calm morning where the
sea was as flat as a pancake. I stood in the mid-section of the 18 foot speed boat scanning
the sea intently for the blow of a Sperm Whale. I was running a transect on a North-South
axis parallel to the Kalpitiya Peninsula on E 79 37 which is on the 400m depth isocline.
This is the typical hunting depth of Sperm Whales although they can dive to depths of
between 1-3 km. I was also looking for seabirds.
The timing for watching pelagic birds, was just before the on-set of the monsoon. In
April 2008, whilst looking for whales on the Spirit of Dondra, I saw how increasing
numbers of Pomarine Skuas, Flesh-footed and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters began to come
in, ahead of the monsoon. The shearwaters which skim the waves, sometimes just inches
above the water are enthralling to watch. They skim the undulating waves, riding them
like a surfer, but with no contact and with hardly a wing beat.
As the South-west monsoon arrived the number and diversity of pelagic seabirds became
better. But the conditions on the water also became rougher and at times it was too rough
for the boats to head out. I realized that sea watching from Mirissa fishery harbour (in
Weligama Bay) would present problems in rough weather. It would be worse from
fishery harbours such as Beruwela where the continental shelf was further out. In March
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2010 I realised that Kalpitiya would be an ideal location. This is because the continental
shelf is close and there is a reef which cushions some of the impact of rough weather.
Even if the open seas was too rough, seabird watchers could be at sea but stay in-shore of
the reef in calmer protected water and watch seabirds which have drifted in. I had also
noticed that during the migrant season, seabirds which are found close to shore roosted
on the beach. During several trips to sea in February and March I had noticed that the
seas of Kalpitiya had much greater numbers of seabirds than Mirissa. I would regularly
see hundreds of Little Terns and dozens of Brown-winged Terns. On the beach, I would
see Gull-billed Terns patrolling the tide line for crabs and Large-crested, Lesser-crested
and Common Terns perched together, occasionally in the company of Sanderlings, Lesser
Sand Plovers and Whimbrel.
During my fifteen years in the UK, I had been on a number of sea watching trips ranging
from Cley to Dungeness in the South. I had noticed how in rough weather birders could
observe many seabirds from shore using telescopes. The beach at Alankuda Beach
(www.alankuda.com) would be an ideal location for watching seabirds during rough
weather. In slightly rough weather, it may even be possible to head out to sea into the
area in-shore of the reef for closer and richer encounters. In terms of physical topography
(especially the proximity to the edge of the continental shelf), the presence of a rich
marine fauna and the year round presence of seabirds, Kalpitiya seems to have all that
was necessary for a rich showing of rare pelagic birds when the South-west monsoon
brought them in.
On Sunday the 4th of April, I was to have one such encounter which provides very clear
evidence that Kalpitiya Peninsula has all the ingredients to be Sri Lanka's top spot for
seabird watching. I came across a flock of seabirds which would have surpassed the
imagination of any Sri Lankan birder. I came across what is probably the largest flock of
shearwaters ever seen off the seas of Sri Lanka by a birder and what is more, it was
sprinkled with rarely seen seabirds.
I had taken out Shiromal Cooray the Managing Director of Jetwing Travels to acquaint
her with my plans to brand Whales and Wilpattu. Also with us was Anne Shih a keen
photographer. Much of Sri Lanka's 'sellable bio-diversity' lies left of the 'The Diagonal'.
This is a line connecting Mannar Island on the South-west to Ruhunu (Yala) National
Park on the South-east. Trincomalee with its whales and Minneriya and Kaudulla and
Lahugala with its elephants are the only big wildlife stories to be on the right of 'The
Diagonal'. In terms of wildlife tourism, almost everything a foreign or local traveller
could want for is to the left of 'The Diagonal', especially with regard to the endemic rich
lowland rainforests and the cloud forests. "The Diagonal' had been bottom heavy with
Blue and Sperm Whales in Mirissa and Elephants, Sloth Bear, and Leopards in Yala.
However with the re-opening of Wilpattu National Park on 27 February 2010, 'The
Diagonal', could now be balanced with Sperm Whales and Dolphins in Kalpitiya and
Leopards, Sloth Bear and possibly Elephants in Wilpattu.
We travelled over 14 nautical miles (26km) North from Alankuda Beach to N 08 19 at
which point the Kalpitiya Peninsula which arched inwards was no longer visible. We
began to head back South on the Sperm Whale line of E 79 37 when I spotted a flock of
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seabirds. I had already had fours sightings of individual Persian Shearwaters and a
Noddy. Birds which probably less than half a dozen Sri Lankan birdwatchers have seen at
the time of writing. I looked through my Swarovski 7 x 42 and realised immediately that
this flock was very special. There were by a conservative estimate at least 25 Persian
Shearwaters and some Noddies with Brown-winged Terns and Little Terns.
I motioned Susantha to slow down and pull up slowly towards the flock slowly. Flocks of
terns are not disturbed by boats and will often follow and mill around fishing boats.
Susantha moved the boat gently under the flock. A number of Persian Shearwaters were
floating on the water and vocalizing loudly with each other. Some would fly up and join
the terns in the air and then land back in the water. At one point I counted 18 Persian
Shearwaters, close to the boat on the water and spaced out a few feet apart. They were
not afraid at all by the boat and were allowing the boat to drift to within ten feet before
they would take off, fly into the air and then land again. Shiromal and Anne commented
on how they were like ducks on water on how they were vocalizing in piping calls.
Coming across this many shearwaters was extraordinary. No birder in Sri Lanka has seen
so many shearwaters together. Later on Monday 5 April 2010 I had a discussion with
Uditha Hettige who has been looking at seabirds during the last two years and he also
confirmed that he had never seen a flock of shearwaters or come across anyone who had
such an observation in Sri Lankan waters. Subsequently Dr Charles Anderson also
recorded them off Mirissa in April 2009, forming the fourth set of Persian Shearwater
records off Sri Lanka. At a discussion at Yala Village Hotel on 21st April 2010, he told
me had never recorded Persian Shearwaters in the Maldives. He suspects this could be
evidence of an El Nino year when the direction of the currents change.
I turned my attention next to the Noddies. I soon realised that there were actually two
species of Noddies. These are terns which are brown overall. One species was distinctly
larger than the other and had a heavier bill. It also seemd to have a heavier spoon-shaped
tail and a more laboured manner of flight. It often fanned its tail and bent it down and
forward to brake and hover over the water. It hardly showed any white on its forehead.
These were the Brown Noddies. The smaller noddies, some with extensive white on the
forehead and showing up as white all the way down the nape were Lesser Noddies. None
of them showed the black lores which are found on the Black Noddy which is much rarer
in Sri Lankan waters. I also noticed two all brown shearwaters and I was able to
photograph one of them, a Wedge-tailed and a Flesh-footed Shearwater. We were having
five very rarely seen seabirds in this flock, Persian, Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed
Shearwater, Brown and Lesser Noddy with a more regularly seen pelagic the Brown-
winged Tern. We spent over half an hour with the flock which accepted us. I reminded
Shiromal Cooray that she was on a very successful pelagic tour and was seeing a flock of
rare seabirds which no one in serious birding circles in Sri Lanka would have ever
imagined to be possible.
The previous evening we had taken the boat close to shore to just beyond St Anne's
Church in Talwaila. We had encountered a flock close to the shore which had mainly
Little Terns, Common Terns, Whiskered Terns in breeding plumage (it was unusual to
have them at sea) and between 5-10 Brown-winged Terns flying in and out. Gull-billed
Terns patrolled the shore and an occasional Lesser Crested Tern and a Large Crested
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Tern flew by. I commented that there were seven species of terns when into good light
and offering good views at a distance of about fifteen feet a tern with black upper-parts
flew past. I failed to photograph what could have been a scarce Sooty Tern. I
remembered that Howard Martenstyn had showed me photographs of Sooty Terns he had
taken at Alankuda Beach.
I had never seen a Persian Shearwater until this day and I had two sightings of what were
probably single Persian Shearwaters earlier that day and later on, a very good sighting of
another which was perched on some floating debris. When I came across the second bird,
I had noticed it because the white on its face was glinting. At first I thought it was some
floating debris and when I realized it was a bird we were too close and it flew off. The
sea was very flat and therefore I could actually see it floating at a distance. I suspect on
many occasions shearwaters which are floating on the water fly away but are not noticed
until they take flight. This may lend the impression that they hardly ever rest when away
from their nesting sites.
In April, the whale watching boats from Mirissa also begin to see rare seabirds which
come in with the South-west Monsoon. However I had been reluctant to promote pelagic
tours from Mirissa because if the seas are rough, the seabirds are too far out from the
shore of the Weligama Bay to see them with 'scopes' and 'bins'. At locations like
Alankuda on the Kalpitiya coast on the other hand, sea watching is possible from the
shore line. Also weather which may be too rough for the open sea, may still allow boats
to go out 3-4 km in-shore of the reef which mitigates some of the force of the waves. The
Kalpitiya Peninsula also offers long, relatively inhabited stretches of coast line which
seabirds and waders use to feed or perch on. There are also traditional fishing villages
which attract seabirds to offal and these birds venture near properties such as the
Alankuda Beach. In stormy weather, rare seabirds will be pushed close to shore and may
even settle on the beach. In good weather, during the South-west monsoon, the seas may
be calm enough to rare seabirds, relatively close to the shore because of the close
proximity of the continental shelf and the rich web or marine life which is present close
to shore. The richness of the marine life off Kalpitiya is evidenced by the sightings of
marine mammals and the presence of seabirds and waders throughout the migrant season
from October to April.
For many years I had hoped of finding a location in Sri Lanka as a hot spot for watching
rare seabirds to replicate the sites such as Dungeness in Kent and the beaches of Cley
where I had sea-watched in windy, near zero temperatures. The Kalpitiya Peninsula in Sri
Lanka seems to be the top site in Sri Lanka for sea-watching from on-shore or out at sea
for the reasons I have explained above. Being able to do so in warm weather and the
prospect of a chilled beer being close to hand, adds another attractive wildlife tourism
trump card to the Kalpitiya Peninsula and another wildlife attraction to the left of "The
Diagonal'.
Notes
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This article was first published in the Sunday Times under the title of "Off to see
seabirds. Due to an unfortunate mistake by the author, an earlier draft of the article was
published which carries two errors. Persian Shearwaters and a Blue Whale was
incorrectly referred to as Streaked Shearwaters and a Bryde's Whale. The internet
edition of the Sunday Times was corrected on Monday 3rd May. In anticipation of the
article, correctly labeled images had been uploaded to Flickr at least a week before
publication.
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8. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Kalpitiya joins Sri Lanka's whale spots. The Sunday Times Plus. Sunday 07 March 2010. Features. Page 4.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100307/Plus/plus_13.html
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/whales/sri-lanka-sperm-whale.html
Kalpitiya Peninsula is unveiled as the last of three whale watching hot spots in Sri Lanka.
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne uses oil exploration and sea bed claim data combined with
field work to explain the story.
[The article below in a shorter edition of around 3,000 words was first published in the
Sunday Times Plus on Sunday 7th March 2010]
Key Facts
* This article offers the first credible case as to why Kalpitiya can be one of
three whale watching hot spot is Sri Lanka. The island has just three
locations where the edge of the continental shelf which plunges to a depth of
a kilometer or more, comes in very close to the shore. These are
Trincomalee, Dondra and Kalpitiya Peninsula.
* The depth data for Kalpitiya only became available after the ocean floor
was mapped in this area in October 2009 for oil exploration. The mapping
of the entire island, showing Sri Lanka had just three potential whale
watching hot spots were not shown on a map until January 2010.
* No one had made a serious effort to evaluate Kalpitiya's potential for
whale watching by traveling off shore of the reef until February 2010 when
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne succeeded in testing a verbal hypothesis made
in March 2009 by Dr Charles Anderson about the proximity of the edge of
the continental shelf and Kalpitiya's whale watching potential.
* Until February 2010, the dolphin watching boats would spend several
hours, within a 6-8 km band parallel to the Kalpitiya Peninsula which lies on
a North-South axis. They did not go beyond the reef to the deep water where
the edge of the shelf plunged deep. The dolphin watching boats only
occasionally chanced across a stray whale which had wandered in-shore of
this reef.]
As I walked to the beach an Indian Nightjar churred. I was sensing the world through my
ears. I was in a world of darkness, like the one inhabited by the Sperm Whales. In their
world, in the murky depths where no light penetrates, they will 'see' with sound, using
echo-location. Starlight filtered softly to be swallowed by the sea. Waves gently lapped
the shoreline in front of the boat house at the Alankuda Beach Resort. The silent murmur
of the sea was abruptly broken by the scream of a powerful out-board engine as we
thundered out, hurtling across the reef at 30kmph to where the continental shelf plunged
away into a deep abyss. I was heading in the darkness before day break, in search of the
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creatures of the darkness of the deep. I had instructed the boatman Susantha to head
West, in search of whales and answers to another theory put forward by Dr Charles
Anderson.
An orange fireball lurked below the Eastern horizon, still waiting to be uncovered by the
Earth's rotation. I was on my way for one more of my dedicated whale watching trips in
Kalpitiya. Amazing as it may seem, it seems that this was the first serious, dedicated
effort to look for whales off Kalpitiya and to ascertain whether whale watching could
work as an eco-tourism product. Its not that others had not seen whales before. But
almost all of them had been chance encounters of people watching dolphins in-shore of
the reef. No one it seems had so far made a serious effort to go in search of whales
beyond the reef which lies around 6km out, roughly parallel to the peninsula. Any
references to the reef in this article is not to Barr Reef which is off Kandakuliya, to which
people go snorkelling.
Sri Lanka already had two sites known for its whales. Trincomalee known for its whales
since the 1980s. But as at February 2010, it is yet to be assessed for its whale watching
strike rate, in Sri Lanka's post-war environment. I had already led the publicity campaign
for Dondra. I was back in Kalpitiya to research another story. That Kalpitiya could be the
other whale watching hot spot in Sri Lanka.
My last effort on 19 April 2009 to look for whales off Kalpitiya was thwarted by bad
weather. I had anxiously watched the rough seas and diverted my effort to undertake
three sessions to find and photograph the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins in the
Puttalam Lagoon. My successful adventure with Dallas Martenstyn was written in the
July-August 2009 issue of Serendib, the in-flight magazine of Sri Lankan.
Despite the bad weather, I had tried once. With the boat buffeted by strong waves, and
the chances of spotting a blow almost nil, I called off the search. I decided to bide my
time for the next season after the current South-west Monsoon had spent its energy.
My next dedicated whale watching session off Kalpitiya had been the day before, on
Tuesday 23rd February 2010. Two boats set out. One had Sandie Dawe, the Chief
Executive of Visit Britain, with her husband Jock. They would follow the 'Dolphin Line',
broadly an area which ran North-South parallel to the Kalpitiya Peninsular, in-shore of
the reef. The other boat, prepared with three tanks of fuel and food and water for a long
sea faring session carried me, Dallas Martnestyn and Georgina Viney with boatman
Susantha for a deep sea mission. None of what I have done in Kalpitiya would have been
possible with the help of Dallas and his team who put together all the logistics for my
whale watching trips. It is thanks to Dallas and his fellow investors at Alankuda that the
world learnt about the dolphin watching at Kalpitiya. As we headed out, we paused a few
times to gauge the depth using a fish finder. In a conversation on 24th March 2009 at
Alankuda with British marine biologist Dr Charles Anderson and Dallas Martenstyn,
Charles had articulated that the continental shelf may be close to Kalpitiya which could
explain the presence of the Spinner Dolphins.
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The whale watching effort this time got of to a fairy tale start. We had left at 7.00 am and
at 7.55am, English photographer Georgina Viney spotted the first blow whilst Dallas and
I were fiddling with our two GPS units. We were at N 08 03 583 E 79 35 300
approximately 7 nautical miles out from the shore (Alankuda Beach Resort is at N 08 03
121 E 79 42 560). We had encountered a group of five Sperm Whales. I explained to
Susantha he should never make a direct bearing to the whale and explained the
importance of keeping a distance from the whale where it would be comfortable with the
boat. I coached him on how to pull parallel to a whale and not approach it from behind.
Once Susantha had understood these basic techniques I explained what I call the 'arc-
forward'. It works as follows. If you are parallel at a comfortable distance to a 'logging'
Sperm Whale you pulls away from the whale, and then travel well ahead and later pull
back into its projected path, describing a wide semi-circle. You then cut the engine off. If
you have pulled in front several hundred meters from the Sperm Whale, if it is
comfortable with you, it will swim up to and past the boat. The Sperm Whales off Sri
Lankan waters are used to fishing vessels and have no fear of boats. By letting the whale
approach you, you may be able to obtain close sightings and have them around for much
longer than if you rushed up to one.
We spent about 15 minutes with the school that were traveling on a South to North
trajectory parallel to the peninsula. A fishing boat raced up to a Sperm Whale we had
been following in parallel at a distance and it immediately dived, proving what I had
explained to our boatman.
I was elated that the search for whales had been so successful. Dallas and Georgina were
not going to join me for the next two trips. Georgina was to spend that evening and the
next morning photographing the Alankuda Beach Resort. So I recruited two new research
assistants, Nikki Connolly and Linda Fennell, the sister and mother in law respectively of
James Fennell, an Irish Photographer who had done the photography for the book 'Living
in Sri Lanka' published by Thames and Hudson. I needed a few more pairs of eyes to
look for the tell tale blow of a whale and also to operate the Canon XL1S video camera I
had brought. The sea had turned rough when he headed out at 3pm. At the boat scudded
along, it felt as we were being dragged along the gravel bed of a dry riverbed strapped to
a wooden board and picked up and slammed down intermittently as well. We searched in
vain for over three hours and we returned as darkness fell, and the orange glow in the sky
had dimmed.
Determined to find more whales, the third consecutive whale watching session had begin
before day break. I was joined once again by Nikki Connolly and Linda Fennell who had
been excited by the images I had taken the previous morning. These are probably the first
images of Sperm Whales taken off Kalpitiya of a publishable standard. We headed out
due West and the traveled on a South to North axis past the previous day's sighting which
I had marked on Jonathan Martenstyn's GPS unit. We continued North keeping out sea at
a distance of around seven nautical miles, with the shoreline no longer in sight. I stood
for some of the journey to enhance our chances of spotting a blow. Three hours of
searching yielded nothing when on the way back, I saw a burst of spray dancing over the
waves. We had found Sperm Whales. There was a group of three and another pair. They
were traveling South, on a South-North trajectory, at a pace of around 10 kmph.
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Susantha knew how to handle them this time and we spent over an hour with the group
keeping a comfortable distance and trying out the arc-forward a few times. The school of
Sperm Whales remained offshore of the reef but were approaching the front of the
Alankuda Beach Resort. An earlier phone call brought out James and Jo Fenell with their
family. We had positioned the boat a few hundred meters in front of the Sperm Whales
when the Fennells arrived and we gestured them to stop. A few minutes later a logging
Sperm Whale arrived and swam closely, between the two boats, completely unruffled by
the two boats which had both cut their engines. Another Sperm Whale approached us,
swam within to ten feet and raised it head to look at us. Then it dived underneath the two
boats and re-surfaced about thirty feet away and continued swimming. We decided to
leave them go, to avoid causing stress and watched them receding into the distance. For
Nikki Connolly it was the highlight of her holiday in Sri Lanka.
Susantha the boatman said that only just once before had he come out beyond the reef to
look for whales. It had been with some of the staff. He said that with clients they always
stayed in-shore of the reef to look for dolphins and that they encountered a stray whale
about once every three weeks. That evening I spoke to Jonathan Martenstyn who runs the
boats from Dolphin Beach. He also confirmed that they stay in-shore of the reef and had
never gone looking for whales. He said their rate of encounter with whales was les than
with Alankuda who ran more dolphin trips. Chitral Jayathilake of John Keels who runs
the whale watching from Mirissa and dolphin watching from Kalpitiya also confirmed
that they stayed in-shore of the reef. Chitral had never gone out to look for whales off
Kalpitiya and had never seen one here, in-shore or off-shore of the reef. Even Dallas
Martenstyn had told me that the only time he went out beyond the reef to look for whales
was when he had gone out with Georgina and me the previous morning.
It seems quite astonishing that with Kalpitiya becoming publicly known two years earlier
for its dolphin watching no one had made a dedicated effort to whale watch and evaluate
whale watching as an eco-tourism product from Kalpitiya.
It was not that people had not reported whales from Kalpitiya before. There had been a
trickle of reports from people who had gone dolphin watching. Initially, I had dismissed
them as chance events. I was a skeptic until March 2009. No one had offered a concrete
reason for why Kalpitiya should be good for whales.
My earlier doubts about Kalpitiya being good for whales had to do with the location of
the continental shelf. I knew the continental shelf held the key to an area of sea being
good for whale watching. It had to be close to land. I had looked for whales off Negombo
and Kirinda for example and failed because one had to travel out over 30 nautical miles
to reach the edge of the shelf. In May 2008, I had taken the story to the world that the
seas South of Mirissa was beyond doubt the best place in the world for seeing Blue
Whales. My conviction was based on field results of a theory by the British marine
scientist Dr Charles Anderson. In addition to a theory of a migratory movement, a key to
the ease and proximity of sightings was the fact that the continental shelf pinched in very
close to Dondra Head.
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Reports of the dolphins from Alankuda were regular and almost daily outside of the
South-west Monsoon. Most of the dolphins seen were Spinner Dolphins, an oceanic
species. I just could not understand why Kalpitiya was so good for an oceanic species.
My interpretation of Admiralty Chart No 828 Cochin to Vishakhapatnam was that the
continental shelf was just too far out from Kalpitiya. I remember telling Libby Southwell
in the second half of 2008, that would be whale watchers from Alankuda were not likely
to get anything more than the odd stray whale. But I wondered whether there was a
submarine canyon which in conjunction with a movement of currents or tides somehow
created a channel rich in nutrients which created an unusual and exceptionally rich
concentration of marine life. The Spinner Dolphins would be a top predator of this
unusually focussed food chain off Kalpitiya.
A more likely answer came on 24th March 2009 as I listened to Charles explaining to
Dallas Martenstyn that the latter's observations of dolphins and the occasional stray
whale could be explained by the continental shelf being closer than was previously
believed. He also thought that there could be whales to be seen beyond the reef. I
interjected. I had been circulating a graphic we had done based on British Admiralty
Chart No 828 which showed that the continental shelf was far out from Kalpitiya, not
close to it. Charles disagreed with my interpretation and we pulled out a bundle of
admiralty charts that Dallas had in the office. I saw that the 1,000m depth contour which
is my personal benchmark is not actually shown on any of the admiralty charts. I had
carelessly interpolated. It was easier to interpolate smoothly along where the depth was
available and draw the 1,000m isobar far out from Kalpitiya than to imagine that
somehow it pinched in close to the Kalpitiya Peninsula like it did at Dondra.
Hmmm. But I was not going to be proven wrong so easily. I pulled out Admiralty Chart
No 1586 Pamban to Cape Comorin. "Look" I said to Charles pointing to a depth at a
distance from the shore on the chart which was marked at something like 284m, "This
clearly shows that the depths are not great at this distance. The continental shelf must be
far out. There must be some other reason why the dolphins are coming in". However,
Charles countered 'See the dash and the dot over the depth number. That means the depth
is greater than the amount shown. They ran out of rope'. I studied the charts more intently
and with Charles teaching me to read the charts the realisation swept over me, that what I
had misinterpreted as hard evidence for a wide shallow basin was no evidence at all. In
fact location of the edge of continental shelf was wide open. There was absolutely no data
available at that time to us or anyone to know conclusively where the continental shelf
lay. I instinctively knew that Charles with his deep experience was onto something. I was
astonished by the idea that the continental shelf could be pinching into the Kalpitiya
Peninsula as it does at Dondra. That night, long after the others had turned in, I waited in
the 'Ambalama' thumbing through the charts. Occasionally I stared out to sea, immersed
in thought, a shiver of excitement running through me. I knew that Dr Charles Anderson
had led me onto another big story. The next day, on 25th March 2009, Dr Charles
Anderson, Dallas Martnestyn and I went dolphin watching from Alankuda and saw
around 600 Spinner Dolphins. I returned to office as there was a business to run. But I
knew I had to come back to nail the story with evidence. I needed to get the whales and
get the depths.
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Realizing the value of the insight offered by Charles Anderson I wrote about in a book
which was published in January 2010. The book was "Sri Lanka the other half' by Juliet
Coombe and Daisy Perry. As far as I know, this was the first airing in print of a theory
that the continental shelf is very close to Kalpitiya and that as a result Kalpitiya could be
good for whale watching.
On 24th March 2009 I had realised I needed to get the whales and the depths to confirm
Charles Anderson's insight that the continental shelf was close and that explained the
presence of whales straying to the dolphin line. I was elated that on 24th February 2010 I
had finally found the whales. But I decided not call or text anyone yet with the news that
there was conclusive evidence that Kalpitiya could be a whale watching hotspot. In my
heart, I knew I did not have all the pieces together. The depth soundings I had taken with
Dallas with a fish finder effective up to 700 feet was mickey mouse data. It did not prove
anything. Co-incidentally Charles who had pulled into Colombo Harbour briefly, had
called me on Friday 19th February. I told him quite proudly that on the Monday I would
be driving to Kalpitiya and I will set out with Dallas and a fish finder to test his theory.
Charles said that it would require very sophisticated equipment. Driving back, that
Wednesday, I knew that the only chance for any meaningful data lay with the National
Aquatic Research Agency (NARA). What followed was a remarkable series of fortuitous
meetings.
The next day, on the Thursday 25th February I attended a meeting at the World Bank
convened by Sumith Pilapaitiya. I looked around for people who could help me in the
search for the missing data. I homed in on Dr Malik Fernando a marine biologist and
asked him if there was any data available on depths off Kalpitiya and where the
continental shelf may lie. Malik told me how he had swum with Arjan Rajasuriya from
NARA in the area where they had thought the continental shelf plunged into a deep
abyss. Dallas Martenstyn had also told me on the last visit that with his experience as an
angler, sailor and diver, that the continental shelf was close. But visibility in water does
not go beyond a hundred feet. No one can peer down to a few hundred meters and see the
edge of the shelf plunging a kilometer or two deep. So although there were clearly others
who shared the Anderson theory, I only had gut feelings to go by. I desperately needed
hard data. As if reading my mind, S.A.M. Azmy, Head of the Environmental Studies
Division of NARA joined us and introduced himself as from NARA. I asked him whether
there were any data, any recent data at all of depth soundings off the Kalpitiya Peninsula.
He explained that the search for oil had resulted in the sea floor being mapped. I asked
him whether it would show the 1,000m and 2,000m isobars. He confirmed it would and
in fact said that they would have that for all around the island.
The following day on Friday 26th February 2010 as I drove to NARA I called Asantha
Sirimanne from Vanguard who produce Lanka Business Online (LBO), Lanka Business
Report on ETV, etc. They are one of my favourite media teams for the depth, accuracy
and analysis in their reporting. I told him how I was on my way to collect data to prove
that Kalpitiya can be a whale watching hot spot. I told him how three days earlier I had
watched Sperm Whales swim South to North and a day later I had followed a school of
Sperm Whales swimming the opposite way in a straight North-South axis. Its almost as if
the 1,000m and 2,000m isobars ran parallel to the Kalpitiya peninsula. They were clearly
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hunting along this line as I watched them dive down repeatedly and emerge later on the
same axis.
On 26 February 2010, S.A. M. Azmy Head of the Environmental Studies Division of
NARA pulled out a chart which showed in remarkable detail the depth contours off the
Kalpitiya Peninsula mapped for exploration of oil. There in front of me were the depth
contours which showed that the continental shelf was indeed very close and that the edge
of the shelf, where it rapidly plunged to 1,000 and 2,000m was parallel to the peninsula.
It was the North-South axis at E 79 35 the Sperm Whales had hunted on and for which I
had taken GPS readings. I could not believe how well it all fitted together. Wow.
Technically speaking the continental shelf is defined as the 200m isobar and here that
was as close as 4 nautical miles. The 1,000m depth isobar which I use as a benchmark for
whale watching was 9 nautical miles away. I was probably the first person from the
general public to see this chart which had been published internally in October 2009. The
data simply had not been available when Charles Anderson had first convinced me to re-
consider my view. The data had come out seven months later and I suspected that few in
marine biological circles were aware of it.
The previous evening, I had attended a dinner hosted by master facilitator Chris
Dharmakirthi at his new house. Seated on either side of me was Tissa Vitarana the
Minister for Science and Technology and Dileep Mudadeniya, the Managing Director of
the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau. I regaled them with stories of the arc-forward
technique and how I had Sperm Whales swimming up to within a few feet of the boat and
how one even swam under my boat, completely unafraid and un-disturbed, approaching
us entirely at their discretion. I mentioned I was visiting NARA the next day to see the
depth data from the oil exploration and details of the shape of the continental shelf
around the island. Chris Dharmakirthi mentioned he was involved in the DECOM
Project, the Project on Delimitation of the Outer Edge of the Continental Shelf of Sri
Lanka under UNCLOS. So I asked Azmy about DECOM. He had already briefed M.A.
Ariyawansa the Head of the National Hydrographic Office (NHO) that I would be
visiting.
M.A. Ariyawansa, the Head of the National Hydrographic Office (NHO) introduced me
to his team and to their amusement I rushed over to a pile of maps on a table and began
thumbing through feverishly. Out came an untitled map simply which showed the 200,
1,000 and 2,000m depth isobars around Sri Lanka and the outer limits of the exclusive
economic zone. It showed the continental shelf pinching in three places. Trincomalee
with a submarine canyon which has been known for some time and shown in the
Admiralty charts. There was Dondra, again shown on the Admiralty charts but its
significance for whale watching unknown until Charles Anderson had explained it to me
in August 2003. There was only one other place. The Kalpitiya Peninsula. The edge of
the shelf where it plunges to depths of a kilometer and more, runs along a North-South
axis at approximately E 79 35. It remains un-changed in position for example between
Colombo and the Kalpitiya Peninsula. However, because of the curvature of the island, it
is far from Colombo but very close to the Kalpitiya Peninusla.
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It is easier to explain this with the metaphor that the edge of the shelf with deep depths
comes in close to Kalpitiya or that the Kalpitiya Peninisula pushes out (relativel to
Colombo for example) to where the edge of the shelf lies.
Sri Lanka therefore has only three places which in terms of the location of the continental
shelf is positioned ideally to be whale watching hot spots because the whale and oceanic
dolphins need deep water to come close in. I had now found the conclusive evidence
which connected the dots to show that Kalpitiya was one and in fact the last of the three
whale watching hot spots to be recognized as such. My role once again had been to listen
to scientists and to go out and do the field work and connect the dots to make a big story
to bridge science with commerce. I was on a commercial agenda to connect whale
watching in Kalpitiya with leopards in Wilpattu (the park was to open that Saturday 27th
February). This gave tour operators like Jetwing Eco Holidays a second option for the
whales at Mirissa and leopards at Yala. But I also knew that I enjoyed being the man who
takes a big story about Sri Lanka to the world, like I had done with Best for Blue Whale,
The Gathering of Elephants, Leopard's Island and so on.
The NHO team were very helpful, courteous and genuinely interested in their work. They
gave me a print out of the Mannar depths and a custom print out of the chart showing the
continental shelf. I came out of NARA clutching the remaining evidence why Kalpitiya
can be a whale watching hot spot. It is utterly strange that despite two years of dolphin
watching, only I had ventured out with the purpose of finding whales to develop whale
watching tourism and that within a matter of days, the hard data to prove the latest
Charles Anderson theory were in my hand. The chart with the continental shelf was dated
January 2010. My timing had been perfect. A few weeks earlier and the chart may not
have existed.
On my way back to the office I triumphantly called Asantha Sirimanne and Renuke
Sadananthan (Sunday Times) to announce that I had a story backed up by hard mapping
data and field work to prove that Kalpitiya is one of three whale watching hotspots in Sri
Lanka.
On 1 April 2008 when I set out to prove that Sri Lanka is the 'Best for Blue Whale' I
realized that the boat crew could not at that point in time tell apart Sperm Whales from
Blue Whales. It was the same at Alankuda on Tuesday 23rd February 2010. This will
change very quickly as it did in Mirissa as clients switch their focus from dolphins to
whales. I had listened to first hand accounts of dolphin watchers who claimed to have
seen Humpback Whales. But by asking them questions, I had realised they had not seen
Humpback Whales which have distinctively long white pectoral flippers. They said the
whales 'humped their back' before diving. I now realise they have been seeing Sperm
Whales which do this. The presence of the 1,000m and 2,000m depth isobars parallel to
the peninsula suggests that there is a deep edge which is a suitable hunting ground for
Sperm Whales which are the champion divers of the animal kingdom and habitually dive
to depths of between one to three kilometers. Dr Charles Anderson had also told Dallas
and me that the South-west Monsoon may bring nutrients from the Arabian Sea as well as
from up-wellings from the Kerala Coast to the peninsula. There may be other up-wellings
off the peninsula which make it a rich feeding ground. Howard Martenstyn had emailed
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me accounts of his dolphin watching trips where he had seen more than one species of
dolphin in large numbers. Of the three records of Orca since 2008, two have been at
Kalptiya, photographed in March 2008 by Senaka Abeyratne and on 31 January 2010 by
Maithri Liyanage. It is likely that Kalpitiya could rival Mirissa for the diversity of species
of marine mammals. However, Mirissa may remain the top spot for watching Blue
Whales because the migratory movement postulated by Dr Charles Anderson takes them
past Dondra twice. I saw no Blue Whales on the two days I was whale watching at
Kalpitiya. In contrast on Wednesday 24th February, Anoma Alagiyawadu, the Jetwing
Lighthouse naturalist observed what he believed to be seven different Blue Whales from
Mirissa. But there were also six days between the 17th and 22nd February where no Blue
Whales were seen, but partly because the sailings were short due to rough weather. It is
too early to conclude where Trincomalee, Mirissa and Kalpitiya will rank in terms of
overall species diversity, the likelihood of seeing Blue Whales and Sperm Whales, etc.
But what is very clear is that we have a scientific basis for concluding that Sri Lanka has
three key sites for whale watching because of the proximity of the continental shelf, the
marine mammal species diversity and logistics. The three sites could result in Sri Lanka
emerging as the leading whale watching destination in the world.
From the conversations I had with Dallas and Jonathan Martenstyn, Chitral Jayathilake
and Maithri Liyanagae (Ruwala Adventure & Nature Resort) it was clear that none of the
boat operators were going off shore of the reef after whales off the shores of Kalpitiya.
They stayed in the dolphin watching area between the reef and the shore and had only the
occasional chance sighting of a whale. My whale watching sessions and this article have
now created awareness that whales can be seen off the Kalpitiya Peninsula if you set out
to look for them. If you are called out for a sighting it could at times be as little as thirty
minutes away but three hours of searching is more likely. The explanation that the
continental shelf is close to Kalpitiya explains why. At least two boatmen have now
learnt from me how to handle the Sperm Whales and begun to show them to clients. The
appetite to go after whales from Kalpitiya and not to dally with just the dolphins will
grow. Serious whale watching will now start from Kalpitiya. A trail has been blazed. In
Kalpitiya as with elsewhere, legislation or guidelines will need to come in for the safety
of the whales as well as the whale watchers. But legislation must be intelligent, practical
and simple, to allow the whale watching industry to grow and create livelihoods. Whale
Watching in Sri Lanka can easily grow to be worth several billion rupees of revenue each
year. Wildlife can pay its way.
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7. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2010). Best for Blue. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion
Bureau, Colombo. e Edition. 8 pages. A4.
The 8 page A4 brochure outlines briefly the discovery that Sri Lanka is the best place in
the world for seeing the Blue Whale.
Sri Lanka: Best for Blue
Sri Lanka, a hot spot for Blue and Sperm Whales.
The Whale Story
Sri Lanka is the best place in the world to see Blue Whales. It is also almost certainly the
best place in the world to see both Blue Whales and Sperm Whales together. This was
realized and publicized only as recently as May 2008 by the author. The reason why it
had remained unknown for so long was because since the 1980s, the attention of whale
watchers had been focused around Trincomalee to the North-east of the island.
The realization that Sri Lanka is a hot spot for Blue and Sperm Whales draws heavily on
the work of Dr. Charles Anderson, a British marine biologist, resident the Maldives, who
had been studying cetaceans in the Maldives. He developed a theory that there was a
migration of whales between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea which took them
near the shores of Sri Lanka. He believed that the whales, especially Blue Whales and
Sperm Whales, would be travelling past the South coast in December-January from the
Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. In April, they would pass the South coast on the return
journey travelling West to the Arabian Sea, passing Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He had
first suggested this theory in a paper published in 1999 which reviewed sightings in the
Maldives. Having reviewed his records up to mid 2002, which was over two thousand
sightings, he refined his hypothesis further in a paper published in 2005 in the “Journal
of Cetacean Research and Management”.
Although Charles had discussed testing this theory with the author in 2003, the first
evidence of it came from Mirissa Water Sports. The latter was a project whereby a boat
for maritime leisure had been given to a cooperative of eleven Tsunami affected youth.
Simon Scarff and Sue Evans were voluntarily training the youth in running a business by
helping with their English, marketing and sailing skills. They came across whales in
April 2006, which were reported in the Sri Lanka Wildlife eNewsletter.
During April 2008, naturalist Anoma Algaiyawadu was on 22 whale watching trips
during the first 26 days of April. He had a hundred per cent strike rate in seeing Blue
Whales. In developing whale watching with Charles Anderson and Mirissa Water Sports,
the author saw and photographed whales on every trip, during the season. On one trip, the
author had Blue Whales, Sperm Whales and a pod of Spinner Dolphins, all in the field of
view at the same time. On another whale watching trip, the author and several others
observed no less than eight Blue Whales spouting simultaneously, and estimated that ten
or more Blue Whales were present within view of the boat. This is an incredible density
for a marine mammal which is generally difficult to see.
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It has taken a surprisingly long time for it to be discovered and made public that the seas
South of Sri Lanka are a whale watching hot spot. But starting from the first wave of
publicity in May 2008, both the knowledge and whale watching infrastructure (including
responsible whale watching) is expected to accelerate rapidly.
KEY FACTS
When should I visit?
The best time for the Southern (and Western) seas is between November and April, when
they are relatively calm (and outside of the south-west monsoon during which the seas
are too rough for going out). In calm seas the 'blows' or 'spouts' of marine mammals and
the splashing of dolphins can be seen at a much greater distance than when the seas are
choppy. In some years the monsoons come early and the whale watching window closes
by mid April.
Are there peak months when sightings are at their best?
There are peaks in the movement of whales in December-January and again in April. In
January the whales are passing the South of Sri Lanka, eastward to the Bay of Bengal. In
April, the whales are travelling westward, past the South of Sri Lanka, across the
Maldives and on to up-wellings off Somalia, in the Arabain Seaa around the Horn of
Africa.
Where should I go whale watching in Sri Lanka?
The seas South of Dondra Head are the best for whale and dolphin watching in Sri Lanka.
This is because the continental shelf is narrowest around Sri Lanka to the South of
Dondra (the southernmost point in Sri Lanka). The whale watching infrastructure is also
at its best here.
Depths of one kilometre and deeper are found relatively close to the South of Dondra,
approximately six kilometres or 40 minutes away. This may be the reason why both Blue
Whales and Sperm Whales can be seen within sight of shore. Sperm Whales dive
typically to a depth of one kilometre or more to feed on animals such as squid which live
in submarine canyons. As deep water is found close to Dondra Head, it is more likely that
Sperm Whales will stray close to shore. Blue Whales feed on krill found within the first
30 meters of depth. But will use deeper water when travelling. The depths and
availability of food to the South of Dondra Head seem to create conditions favourable for
seeing both species close to shore. Elsewhere in Sri Lanka the continental shelf is wider
and therefore whale watchers may have to travel five or six times that distance to reach
the one kilometre depth contour.
The continental shelf is defined as the depth contour of 200m. The location of the
continental shelf is important as the depth of water rapidly reaches a depth of one and
then two kilometres or deeper beyond this.
At the time of writing, reports continue to come in of whales being seen off Kalpitiya. Dr.
Charles Anderson in a conversation with Dallas Martenstyn and me told us that he
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suspects that the continental shelf is closer to Kalpitiya than believed. The admiralty
charts do not at present have accurate depth readings close to Kalpitiya. If the continental
shelf is indeed close to Kalptitita, this will be the reason as to why Kalpitiya can emerge
as a top whale watching location. This will be especially so when larger boats become
available for whale watching on long sailings as opposed to the small boats which are
presently used mainly for dolphin watching.
What am I likely to see?
During the season, Blue Whales are a strong possibility. So too are pods of Spinner
Dolphins. Sperm Whales are seen regularly. As mentioned before the author and
naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu had a one hundred percent strike rate in April 2008, for
Blue Whales. Whale watching is in its early years, quantitative data is still too thin to
confidently predict the strike rate for the entire window of time between December to
mid April. But indications so far are that between December and April there is a strong
likelihood of over eighty per cent of encountering Blue Whales during the entire whale
watching window.
What about accommodation?
Most whale watchers set off from the Mirissa Fishery Harbour. The coastal strip from
Hikkaduwa, through Galle, Unawatuna, Koggala to Mirissa has a broad range of
accommodation including some of the most luxurious villas and boutique hotels in the
island. This entire strip is within commuting distance from the Fishery Harbour at
Mirissa. Galle is approximately a 40 minute drive.
Marine Mammals To Watch
Blue Whale (Balenoptera musculus)
The Blue Whale is the largest animal to have ever lived on the planet. It can attain a
length of 30 m and weigh up to 100 tonnes. Whales are of two types, baleen whales
which sieve water through their baleen plates and toothed whales which hunt larger
oceanic animals. Blue Whales are baleen whales, they can sieve between 40-60 tonnes of
water through their baleen plates when taking a single 'mouthful' which has been
described as the largest bio-mechanical action in the world. The water is sieved through
and the krill is retained in the baleen plates from which they are removed by the tongue.
Krill are small crustaceans which are found in seasonal mating swarms. During the
feeding season, Blue Whales of the Northern and Antarctic populations put on a lot of
weight. They may have to fast for eight months of the year as the vast swarms of krill are
seasonal. The smaller Blue Whales in tropical waters may have a reasonably reliable
source of food through much of the year and any period of fasting will be much less.
Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus)
The Sperm Whale is a 'toothed whale' and has teeth on its lower jaw. It feeds on fish and
other animals such as squid which inhabit deep water. Sperm Whales are the deepest
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diving whales going to depths of two kilometres or more. It can also hold its breath for
over an hour. The front of its head (the melon) is filled with hollow tubes which contains
an oil known as 'spermaceti'. They were hunted for the 'spermaceti' which was used as a
lubricant. Early whalers mistook this for sperm giving the whale the name of Sperm
Whale.
The Sperm Whale's blow is small and bushy relative to that of the Blue Whale. The blow
hole of the Sperm Whale is slanted at a forward facing angle and to the left of its body.
This produces a characteristically angled and forward directed blow. But at a distance
the slanting of the blow is not always apparent. However the blow of a Blue Whale
always rises as a tall column and its height is more easily observed at a distance.
Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris)
This is the commonest of the species of dolphins found in Sri Lankan waters. It is also the
most spectacular, due to its engaging acrobatic leaps out of water. Whilst airborne it
rotates along its longitudinal axis, hence the name 'Spinner Dolphin'. Some individuals
have been counted performing eight complete rotations before falling back into the water.
The leaps out of water are probably a demonstration of their 'fitness' to prospective mates
and challengers. As to why it also spins is a matter of conjecture. Spinner Dolphins first
entered the public consciousness in Sri Lanka in the first quarter of 2008 when the
availability of accommodation and boats saw a large number of Sri Lankans engaging in
dolphin watching off Kalpitiya. At times, approximately two thousand spinners have
been in the field of view. In parallel, the development of whale watching off Mirissa also
saw the public coming into contact with Spinners of the Southern seas.
Itinerary
The seas South of Sri Lanka is the best place in the world for seeing the elusive Blue
Whale. For seeing both Blue Whales and Sperm Whales together, it is almost certainly
the best in the world. In December-January and April, the numbers of whales peak as
they engage in a migration between the Bay of Bengal and up-wellings off Somalia in the
Arabian Sea.
DAY 01 Arrival and transfer to the south (the strip from Hikkaduwa-Galle-Mirissa to
Tangalle) for five nights.
DAY 02-03 Mirissa for marine safaris. Blue Whales in concentrations not seen elsewhere
in the world would be the highlight. Whales are seen relatively close to shore as the
continental shelf is narrow to the South of Dondra Head. A bonus is the presence of
Sperm Whales (infrequent) and pods of dolphins (frequent). Some whale watchers have
seen Blue Whales, Sperm Whales and Spinner Dolphins, simultaneously in their field of
view.
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DAY 04 Visit the Galle Dutch Fort (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Take a nature
walk at Hiyare Forest Reserve, near Galle.
DAY 05 Marine safaris for whales and dolphins. Some pods contain more than five
hundred dolphins, including the Spinner Dolphin, which engages in spectacular leaps.
DAY 06 Another day out in the sea for marine mammal and sea bird watching. Some of
the seabirds include skuas, shearwaters, terns and tropicbirds.
Whale watching is seasonal, between December and April when the seas are calm.
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6. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2009). Best for Blue - One Year On. Serendib,
the in-flight magazine of Sri Lankan. November - December 2009. Pages 50-53.
A look back after the first full season of whale watching in Sri Lanka.
"In May 2008, I began an aggressive publicity campaign to position the South of Sri
Lanka as the best place in the world for seeing blue whales. In April 2009, Sri Lanka
completed its first full fledged year of commercial whale watching. A year's data has
demonstrated unequivocally that Sri Lanka is unsurpassed for the both the ease and
likelihood of seeing Blue Whales". Two navy patrolmen interrupted the feature interview
I was giving the BBC on a beach in Wellawatta, with the Indian Ocean as a backdrop.
They were puzzled when we explained that we were talking about whales. But they were
satisfied that we were not a security threat. We went indoors where I repeated the story
for a BBC radio version.
It is quite fitting that I look back on the first year, in an article in Serendib, because my
two articles in Serendib were hugely influential in establishing the story. My publicity
blitz began in a lengthy, story first published in the May 2008 special edition of the Sri
Lanka Wildlife eNewsletter. This was published in various forms in local and
international print and electronic media. Steve Peaple who read it commissioned two
articles for Serendib. The second was subsequently released as a pdf and travelled the
world as it was mailed around by people in tourism as well as wildlife enthusiasts.
I did not discover that blue whales can be seen off Southern Sri Lanka. My claim to fame
lies in my realization and efforts to position Sri Lanka as the best place in the world for
seeing blue whales. This was based on extensive field work by me and others, the ability
to build a credible and well researched story. A networking skill with local and
international media matched by few helped greatly . One year on, so well has the story
been seeded, that there are many claimants to have been the first to see the blue whales or
to claim to have got the commercial whale watching off the ground.
But I know that the 'new story' began with a small coalition of people. For me it began on
an English summer's day during the British Birdwatching Fair in August 2003, when Dr
Charles Anderson, a British marine biologist explained to me that Dondra Head, the
southern-most of Sri Lanka, could be the best land based location for watching blue
whales. His planned visit was postponed by the tragic Boxing Day Tsunami. But out of
this tragedy was born a cooperative of eleven tsunami affected fishermen who were given
a boat to start marine leisure activities. Two British volunteers, Sue Evans and Simon
Scarff who were assisting the Mirissa Water Sports team stumbled across the whales in
April 2006. Charles Anderson tested his theory of a migration of Blue Whales in April
2007 and I ventured from the fishery harbour of Mirissa in April 2008.
The first of April 2008, was a pivotal date. Within forty minutes we encountered our first
whales and several more. So little was known by anyone at this stage that only I and my
naturalists realised that we were looking at more than one species of whale. Back at Sue
Evans' house I processed my RAW files, consulted the four books I had brought with me
and announced that we had both the largest baleen whale (blue whale) and the largest
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toothed whale (sperm whale) in the bag. I then realised without any doubt, that I was now
on the biggest positive story for Sri Lanka. In fact in a literal sense, the biggest living
story on the planet. I explained to the Mirissa Water Sports crew that I could take this
story world-wide if they would run the boat for me at a special rate so that I could ground
truth the story with more field data. I returned with my team of guides within two days,
back from Yala, for more sightings of blue whales. Anoma Alagiyawadu, who became
the principal collector of data and the naturalist of the Jetwing Lighthouse went on to
clock twenty two whale watching days in April 2008, with a hundred percent record of
seeing blue whales. In April 2009, the monsoon closed in early and out of fifteen sailings
blue whales were seen on fourteen.
Anxious to gain a complete data history, as soon as the seas calmed again in October
2008, I resumed my search for whales. The burst of publicity resulted in Anoma
Alagiyawadu being out on many whale watches supplemented by off season whale
watches chartered by us. Thanks to this by April 2009, we had gathered a very
comprehensive and compelling year round data history which showed that Sri Lanka is
un-matched for the ease and likelihood of seeing blue whales. During the 2008/2009
season, Anoma clocked in an exhausting 75 whale watching trips. We collected data on
108 sailings by Mirissa Water Sports with blue whales seen on just over seventy percent
of the sailings. The strike rate is higher when off season sailings are taken out.
On the first of April 2009, a year on from where it began for me, I was on the first of two
back to back whale watching groups with Dr Charles Anderson. My blue whale
anniversary day passed without seeing a single whale. It could have been all so different,
if this had happened exactly a year ago. I may not have returned to the southern seas on
my way back from Yala. Sri Lanka could still be without a champion to publicize it as the
best place for blue whales in the world. A few people, would be going out and seeing
marine mammals. But there would have been no concerted and well researched burst of
publicity. There would not have been a queue of people wanting to meet Dr Charles
Anderson on his return in April 2009.
But fortunately it worked out on the 1st of April 2008. It was not bad in April 2009
either. The whales failed on my blue whale anniversary day denting my hundred per cent
track record for April. But they made up for it on the 2nd of April. In the space of an hour
we had a Bryde's Whale, Blue Whale and six Sperm Whales. In those first two days of
April we also had Spinner, Indo-Pacific Bottlenosed, Pantropical Spotted and Striped
Dolphins. A total of eight species of cetaceans in two days. With us was artist Anoma
Wijewardene who has been on one of Dr Anderson's Maldivian whale watching trips
where they travelled on a live aboard for seven days. On that trip they had clocked nine
species. We had managed eight species in two days, from two consecutive morning
sailings. It showed how good Sri Lanka is for cetaceans.
I joined Charles again in the second week of April for two more sailings with his second
group. On one of their trips they had recorded what they believed were ten individual
Blue Whales. This is having discounted possible repeat sightings. I also found Dr
Anderson's groups very useful for collecting a different type of data. His clients were
people who had gone in search of blue whales elsewhere in the world and were able to
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provide first hand comparative information. One Swiss national had taken ten zodiac trips
into the Gulf of Lawrence from British Columbia in Canada for Blue Whales. He had
seen none. Another couple had sailed along California on a ten day whale watching trip
and had just three blue whale sightings. The previous year I had been introduced to
Alastair Fothergill who had produced the episode on blue whales for David
Attenborough. He too had confirmed that it was not so easy. In August 2008 at the British
Birdwatching Fair I spoke to whale watching tour leaders and picked their brains on their
encounter rates in other parts of the world which are listed for blue whales. It was
overwhelmingly clear that Sri Lanka was pre-eminent. When the next season began, I
was could approach my story with even more confidence.
I had taken a gamble in 2008. I had placed a lot of faith in the work of Dr Charles
Anderson and run my story on one month's data, that of April 2008. But in that month, I
once had 8 blue whales spouting, simultaneously in view. Having extensively reviewed
the literature, I knew that in the space of a few seconds of viewing time, I was seeing
more blue whales than people in other blue whale watching sites in the world may see on
a ten day live-aboard trip. I decided to take a risk and go public with the story. I was
helped by a receptive local and international media. Two magazines helped in particular.
Firstly, Serendib and the subsequent pdf of my second article in it. Secondly, the Sri
Lankan society magazine Hi and the interest in wildlife by its editor Shyamalee Tudawe.
Hi magazine is seen by an influential and affluent audience and the whale article created
a storm. Anyone who was anyone in Sri Lankan society circles decided that they had to
go whale watching. The most significant on-going contribution came from a young and
passionate team of the then recently formed Sri Lankan Tourism Promotion Bureau
headed by Dillep Mudadeniya. Dileep had assembled a team of people who had
backgrounds in media and advertising. This young team more than anyone else
understood that the blue whale story was an effective media hook for positive publicity.
They began to facilitate visits for media, diplomats and a host of other people, assisted by
media briefs which I had put together for them.
Another key entrant was the tie up between the Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation
with Walkers Tours. This provided more boats. Walkers Tours will ensure that whale
watching is on the itineraries of large tour operators many of which are handled by them.
The media end and the commercial end have become connected and commercial whale
watching is here to stay in Sri Lanka after a relative brief birthing period.
Sri Lanka's first full fledged year of commercial whale watching had many pleasant
highlights for me. Germaine Greer the acclaimed feminist and author exclaiming that the
sea was dotted with Sperm Whales, is one. During the Galle Literary Festival in January
2009, we had headed out in drizzle and stiff wind. As the boat rocked in the swell, over
twenty Sperm Whales logged past us, with one group of seven tightly packed against
each other. A few days earlier, with Steve White, the Editor of Action Asia, we watched
two Humpback Whales creating arcs of white foam as they breached. They cavorted in
the water and at times used their long white pectoral fins to slap the water. We also had
five Blue Whales spouting simultaneously around the boat.
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[Post-publication note. The author now considers the sighting of the Humpback Whales
unconfirmed as they were at a distance and the longish pectoral fins of Blue Whales
covered in white foam seen though a telephoto lens could be confused with Humpback
Whales. The distant images taken are not adequate for a positive ID. Blue Whales
engaged in courtship chases may have been responsible for the aerial behaviour creating
the huge arcs of white foam. The author and others have subsequently observed
behaviour by Blue Whales believed to be related to courtship.]
With Lewis Borge-Cardona I narrated for the Sri Lankan Airlines in-flight radio program
the story of 'Best for Blue', whilst blue whales whooshed and blew towering white spouts
near the boat. At the same time, Shyamalee Tudawe the editor of Hi Magazine screamed
with joy as one blue whale after another came into view. On another trip artist Anoma
Wijewardene watched silently and wistfully, close to tears as she encountered her first
blue whale. My at time controversial marketing tactics saw me on board with Shyamalee
Tudawe for the Amangalla Celebrity Whale Watch where over twenty people from eight
nationalities gave three cheers for the blue whales. As the whale watching season drew to
an end, the Jetwing Lighthouse finally began the first whale watch sightings newboard at
a hotel, creating a buzz amongst clients and staff. The on-line newsboard at
www.jetwingeco.com had already become a point of reference for media.
The periods I spent on the boat Charles are times I will always treasure. His wit is as
sharp as his mind and he sees things which we would have missed. With his trained eye
he would point out a species which we could have been easily overlooked. I remember
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins bow-riding whilst a mixed age and sex group of Short-
finned Pilot Whales swam close to the boat. This was the second sight record since
commercial whale watching began. On my trips to sea with him I had some magical
moments with Pantropical Spotted Dolphins bow riding, Shearwaters skimming the
waves, Striped Dolphins leaping in the distance and a school of five hundred Spinner
Dolphins playing with us.
The year also saw me with Chitral Jayatilake attending meetings called by the National
Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA) and the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority
(SLTDA) to discuss legislation drafted by the Department of Wildlife Conservation
(DLWC). Intelligent and practical legislation which ensures the welfare of marine
wildlife and client safety whilst allowing the poor south to develop an economic resource,
will be important. It will be necessary before long to introduce licensing for accredited
whale watching boat providers. One hopes that the legislation will be intelligent, practical
and enforceable.
As commercial whale watching becomes a success, the debate will become more heated
with claims as to who began it first. There have been a few research vessels which
conducted surveys on Sri Lankan waters since the 1980s. There had also been more than
one attempt to start commercial whale watching from Trincomalee. But the credit for the
first truly successful and sustained effort for commercial whale watching in Sri Lanka
must go to a small group of tsunami affected fishing youth from the poor fishing
communities of the south assisted by the Build a Future Foundation. The man who
unlocked it for me and laid the scientific foundation for my press blitz is undoubtedly Dr
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Charles Anderson. Without him, we would still be waiting for the seas off Trincomalee
to be de-regulated for leisure pursuits in a post war environment. My role as always has
been to act as a catalyst and publicist at the interface between science and commerce. The
story I took to the world, that Sri Lanka is Best for Blue, is only the 'new story'. It is
really an old story which we had forgotten. Long before any modern cetacean researchers
visited, Sri Lanka's south coast was known to the whalers. Architect and historian Ismeth
Raheem drew my attention to a map drawn in the second century AD by Ptolemy. The
area around Kumana was known as the Cape of Whales. Two thousand years ago, people
knew what we know now. They came and hunted our whales. More recently, in the 19th
century, the Boston Whalers came to Sri Lanka to catch whales and details of their
catches are recorded in shipping intelligence registers. So my story, is an old story, once
which we had forgotten, about a century or more ago.
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5. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2009). The Pink Dolphins of Kalpitiya. Serendib, the in-flight magazine of Sri Lankan. July - August 2009. Pages 42-43.
The first popular article to publicise the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins in the
Kalpitiya Lagoon.
Two navy Arrow boats screamed past us powered by two 200 horsepower outboard
engines. Our relative speeds were exaggerated as we sped out in the opposite direction.
We were headed to where the waters mix. The fishermen had told me that the 'Ongil' is
seen regularly where the extensive Puttalam Lagoon enters the open sea.
I was on the trail of the Pink Dolphins of Kalpitiya. Well, I exaggerate on the degree of
pinkness and more on this later. The pink dolphins I was after are correctly known as the
Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin. It is the only cetacean (the scientific order in which the
whales and dolphins are placed) known to enter lagoons in Sri Lanka. The dugong is
another marine mammal which enters lagoons, but it is a sirenian (a scientific order of
animals with a distant affinity to elephants) and not a cetacean. The Indo-Pacific
Humpback Dolphin is a little studied dolphin about which very little was known until
recently. For the fishermen of Kalpitiya of course, the animal was no stranger. But for
those of us with a background in the western sciences, it was largely unknown. In 2001,
the Wildlife Heritage Trust published Anouk Illangakoon's book on the whales and
dolphins of Sri Lanka. At the time of writing, there were only two confirmed records and
one possible sight record.
The dolphins are not totally pink. But they show enough pink for me to label them as the
“Pink Dolphins of Kalpitiya”. However at the level of a species, The Indo-Pacific
Humpback Dolphin or Sousa chinensis, can become almost totally pink as they do in the
waters around Hong Kong. The all pink form is of the sub-species chinensis. The sub-
species found in Sri Lankan waters is plumbea, a reference to the plumbeous or grey
colour. However as the photographs show, some mature adults can show a fair amount of
pinkness.
I had not even thought of going after them until I was told about them by Dr Charles
Anderson, during dinner at the Alankuda Beach Resort. Dallas Martenstyn, who had
played a pivotal role in drawing notice to the Spinner Dolphins off Kalpitiya had invited
Charles. Dallas and Charles had attempted to find the dolphins but were hampered by
mechanical problems. During dinner, Charles drew my attention to a paper by Koen
Cornelis Arthur Brӧker and Anouk Ilangakoon on the 'Occurrence and conservation
needs of cetaceans in an around the Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary, Sri Lanka' published in
2008 in the journal Oryx of Fauna and Flora International. Between April 2004 and
March 2005, the authors had conducted monthly surveys of the Puttalam Lagoon. They
had ten encounters with the humpback dolphins, with three of them in April. The next
morning, Charles, Dallas and I set out to sea for a memorable encounter with 500-600
Spinner Dolphins. We had to go back South to join the first of two back to back whale
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watching groups which Charles was bringing to the Jetwing Lighthouse. They were
coming to watch Blue Whales South of Mirrissa. The pink dolphins would have to wait.
I promised to resume the search and I was back a couple of weeks later, racing against the
early arrival of the South-west Monsoon in April 2009, which Charles had predicted. I
had arrived ahead of Dallas and set out with Romlas the Manager of the Alankuda Beach
Resort and Kumara one of his boat crew. Romlas negotiated with one of the local
fisherman for the use of a boat and we were soon scudding against strong waves. Sea
spray whipped against us covering my glasses in a film of salt. Two Skuas flew low over
the water and close to us. I was braced against the side of the boat which had no seats. In
the rough sea I could not even steady myself enough to use the binoculars effectively to
identify them to species level. After over two hours we had not seen much more than
Bridled Terns and Large Crested Terns.
I had warned Romlas and Kumara that we could not expect easy results. In 2001, when I
set out to brand Sri Lanka for leopard safaris, I did not encounter too many leopards on
my first few game drives. Those that I did, were not suitable for brochure quality
photography either. I had learnt that many field sessions are needed to find an animal and
to learn enough as to how to find it again. We asked passing fishing boats whether they
had seen any dolphins. They all had, at some point during the last few weeks, but not
today.
The next morning I set out with Dallas who had arrived. Dallas got his boat yard crew to
prepare for a long session. We were going to hire a fisherman's boat, from a boatman
near the navy base at Kalpitiya. But Dallas was going to take one of his own engines and
a spare propeller. Three tanks of fuel were also loaded. To make sure we were
comfortable for a long stretch of time, a bench to sit on was loaded. Ice boxes were
packed with soft drinks, water and enough lemon puff biscuits to feed a biscuit munching
whale.
There is heavy security and a floating navy sentry point requires all boats to check in and
check out. Its manned by three navy men, who have at their disposal serious weaponry
mounted on the boat Other navy boats frequently patrol the lagoon. Approximately 40
kilometers North of where we were, was the former LTTE sea tiger base at Silvathurai
which had been captured a few months earlier after repeated air assault. Each registered
fishing boat has a unique number and its own identification papers. Any unusual
passengers such as marine mammals enthusiasts have to be cleared by the navy base first.
I was glad that Alankuda Beach were taking care of all the formalities. All I had to do
was find and photograph the dolphins.
We headed out to one of the larger islands in the lagoon, Ippantivu. Nearly two hours had
lapsed without a sighting when Nirman, the boatman pointed ahead. It was immediately
obvious that these dolphins were different to the oceanic Spinner Dolphins. What struck
me at once was how much pink some of the individuals showed on their dorsal fin and
body and even more on the tail flukes. On deep dives they would raise the tail out of the
water. This feature combined with their squat bodies reminded me more of a Blue Whale
than the graceful and aerodynamic oceanic dolphins.
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They were relatively slower and showed a pronounced basal area under the dorsal fin and
were strongly 'humped' when diving. They did not show their beak for more than a
fraction of a second and I found it impossible to photograph their beak. They were not
afraid of fishing boats and at least two swam up to the boat and dived underneath. We
followed them at a distance comfortable to them and kept pace in parallel whilst they
traversed from one side of the lagoon to the other. We estimated that there were possibly
ten or more. But its never easy to estimate numbers of dolphins as only a few show up at
any one time. The most number of dolphins we had simultaneously breaking the surface
were three. For popular parlance, the name Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin is a tad dry
and long winded. Struck by the pinkness they showed, Dallas and I agreed that we should
popularize them by branding them as the Pink Dolphins of Kalpitiya.
When we returned, Romlas who saw my pictures claimed he had seen at least four of
these dolphins being sold as shark meat at the local fish market a week earlier. Clearly
there is a need to create more awareness how precious these dolphins are and the need to
protect them. In fact Brӧker and Illangakoon in their paper write that the Indo-Pacific
Humpback Dolphin 'should be recognised as having the potential to be an important non-
consumptive resource for ecotourism and a flagship species for marine environmental
conservation.......".
The fishermen claimed that they are seen easily in the mornings when the fishermen are
heading out to sea at first light. The next morning I marshaled a reluctant family who rose
at 4.30 am so that we could be on the boat in Puttalam Lagoon by 6am. Three hours of
searching yielded nothing. But Nirma, Maya and Amali were able to see a part of Sri
Lanka which many people cannot even imagine exists. That morning, I appreciated how
large the area between the Kalpitiya Peninsula and the mainland really is. The area can be
approximated to a thin rectangle approximately 35km long and 6km wide. This is over
200 square kilometers. The extent of deeper water where we had to search was less than
half, but in theory was still approaching a potential hundred square kilometers. Quite a
large area to search for our target species in a 19 foot boat. Blue Whales will betray their
position with a spout which can be seen more than two kilometers away. In contrast, the
Indo-Pacific Humpback does little to betray its presence. Occasionally, one may breach.
We had two breaches. But in a choppy sea, this is easily missed.
The humpback dolphins are what are considered an in-shore species. It will enter
lagoons, mangroves, estuaries, etc and also be at sea near the coastline. Dallas and I had
both done three trips apiece and had a strike rate of one out of three. Many more trips will
be required before we gain a qualitative feel of what the strike rate is. For keen marine
mammal enthusiasts, the 'pinkies' adds another marine mammal to the wants list. It opens
up more tourism possibilities for the Kalpitiya Peninsula which has been earmarked for
tourism development.
The Spinner Dolphins at Alankuda were a fortuitous discovery by the Colombo
fraternity. Dallas Martentyn had been visiting the Kalpitiya Peninsula with his parents, to
snorkel and dive, since he was a teenager. In the early 2000s, former Prime Minister
Ranil Wickremesinghe earmarked the Kalpitiya Peninsula for tourism development.
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Dallas who already acquired a love for the peninsula was inspired by this and in 2002
started his search for property. In 2004 Dallas and his partner began investing in
Alankuda. They started with a simple base camp and started planting trees on their
property. By 2006 they had built 4 cabanas and some basic facilities. In 2005, Dallas who
had a deep love for the sea had discovered for himself the large numbers of oceanic
Spinner Dolphins. A retinue of friends began to follow them to Alankuda to watch
dolphins and chill out.
As friends of friends also began to visit the property it created pressure to provide more
facilities and lean towards a commercial model to manage costs. In 2008, they completed
two villas and a swimming pool. What had begun as a real estate prospecting had
morphed into a tourism resort and Dallas and his investor had become the pioneers of
high end tourism on the Kalpitiya Peninusla. What is more, Dallas Martenstyn had played
the lead role in introducing dolphin watching to Sri Lanka
The pointer by Dr Charles Anderson to Dallas and me, adds another species of marine
mammal to the list which visitors can hope to see. Dallas had been struck by what a deep
impression the dolphins made on visitors. Not surprisingly he was keen to search for the
humpback dolphins with me and have his team organize the logistics.
Howard Martenstyn, the brother of Dallas had also helped popularize the Alankuda
dolphins through the usage of his images in an article, 'Dancing with the Dolphins in
Kalpitiya' which ran in Hi Magazine (Series 6, Volume 4) in 2008. This and my earlier
article on Sri Lanka being Best for Blue Whale in Hi magazine (Series 6, volume 3) had a
significant impact in galvanizing Colombo's social circles to go out to sea in pursuit of
whales and dolphins. The Editor of the magazine, Shyamalee Tudawe realized her
affluent readership had an empathy with wildlife and used the magazine to break new
ground in popularizing wildlife. The other key article on Alankuda's dolphins which also
used photographs by Howard and words by Shehan Karunatilake ran in the July-August
2008 issue of Serendib, the in-flight magazine of Sri Lankan. Co-incidentally, this ran in
parallel with one of my articles to publicize the South of Sri Lanka as the best place in the
world to see Blue Whales. Dallas' nephew Jonathan is now building a facility named the
'Dolphin Beach' from which he runs boats for dolphin watching. This will further
reinforce the Martenstyn family's connection with Alankuda's dolphins.
I also used my time on the peninsula look at migrant waders for which the Kalpitiya
Peninsula has always been famous. There is enough here to keep a keen birder and
marine mammals enthusiast busy for a few days. In a few more months, the South-west
Monsoon will be spent and the seas will be calm once again. Others can resume the
search for the little studied pink dolphins of Kalpitiya. However a word of caution is
necessary. Marine mammals watching need to be handled responsibly with the welfare of
the animals and client safety kept foremost. Prospective clients need to understand that
these animals need time to rest and sleep. Continuous, intrusive and irresponsible dolphin
watching traffic could add to the physical stress created by already heavy boat traffic. If
dolphin watching is done properly without stress to the animals, then marine mammal
watching can help conserve these animals. The local fishermen will understand that a
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live dolphin is worth a lot in tourist dollars and this will help to reduce the killing of
dolphins.
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4. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2009). Getting close to whales. Living. May -
June 2009. Pages 32-33. Volume 4, Issue 5. ISSN 1800-0746.
An encounter with Sperm Whales with Germaine Greer.
One evening, I promised some of the members of the Galle Literary Festival Committee
that I would not take Germaine Greer whale watching. It would be a bad idea to take an
author out of the festival for so many hours and deprive literary festival attendees of time
with an author. Especially one with star billing such as Germaine Greer. I had stumbled
across a discussion between the General Manager Wester Feltham and naturalist Anoma
Alagiyawadu of the Jetwing Lighthouse hotel and some of the members of the Literary
Festival Committee. Greer was being hosted by the hotel and had seen some of the
literature on whale watching. In 2007, the literature had been placed in all of the rooms at
as part of a cunning plan to capture data on the strike rate of seeing whales. With Sri
Lanka’s pre-eminence for Blue and Sperm Whales being in an international publicity
burst starting in May 2008, the hotel had further enhanced the material on display in the
public areas.
My promise was on a Tuesday evening, the day before the official opening of the third
Galle Literary Festival. On a Saturday afternoon I found myself heading out to sea on a
whale watch with Germaine Greer. Oops! Had I reneged on my word? Not really. I was
totally blameless as I subsequently explained to some of the Literary Festival Committee.
Germaine Greer was a keen whale watcher and had whale watched around the world
from the Bay of Biscay to Australia. As she told me later, she was determined to go
whale watching at some point during the Literary Festival. I did not know she had signed
up when I returned to Galle on the Saturday. I had even turned up without my video
camera as my plan was to attend the talks in the Hall de Galle. Quite by chance I ran into
Bindiya Vij who had run Kiplings Camp in India for four years. After listening to my
whale tales she had signed up for a whale watch. Naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu
confirmed that he was on that afternoon sailing. “Are any of the Literary Festival authors
on the boat?” I asked. “Germaine Greer” came the reply. I decided I needed to be on the
boat as well.
When Germaine Greer arrived to board the van which was to take us to the Mirissa
Harbour I introduced myself. “You better show me a whale” she said “Because you are
the man who has publicized this”. I was quite taken aback at how quickly she had made
the connection. Two days earlier I had taken Lewis Borge-Cardona to whale watch for a
recording for the Sri Lankan Airlines in-flight radio program. Germaine Greer had come
up in discussion and Lewis described her as a person with a formidable intellect. I could
see how switched on she was. There was a media related chat on board, in between
sightings of Blue Whales. A few media feelings had been ruffled (but not Lewis) over
Germaine’s reluctance to grant interviews with press. Before Germaine arrived I carefully
put away my media pass. I was not here to interview her, but a few shots of Germaine on
the boat would help. Besides, I was going through a whale watching publicity obsession
and Germaine was a good excuse to go and look for more whales.
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I had read articles on the environment by a Germaine Greer. I had always wondered
whether this was the same Germaine who was a feminist and the author of the ‘Female
Eunuch’. It turned the two were the same and I had her for a quality forty minutes, all to
myself. It turned out we had a lot in common. I had a private nature reserve (albeit tiny).
She had hers. Hers was much bigger than mine. She had 65 hectares of rainforest she was
re-generating in Australia. She had to keep working she explained to ensure that the
wages for five people could be paid. She talked of how quickly the wildlife re-colonised.
Her land had been scarred by quarrying for rocks. But tens of thousand of trees had been
planted and were healing the landscape.
She worried that it was too late to turn back the effects of global warming. The recession
could make matters worse for the environment she warned. She cited the recycling for
cardboard in the UK becoming un-economical. Anoma had warned me that she was a
dab hand with botanical names or Latin names. She talked of how botanists had muddled
some of the Latin. She mentioned a species she had seen here which she thought was also
found in Australia. From the description I thought it was a Kenda plant in the genus
Macaranga. Germaine thought she was describing a member of the Euphorbiaceae found
in Australia. Out came Anoma’s copy of A Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of Sri
Lanka. We checked the book, our Macaranga peltata was indeed in the Euphorbiaceae.
So it must be a similar species she was familiar with from Australia.
The talk switched to the work of Rohan Pethiyagoda and his team at the Wildlife
Heritage Trust (the publisher of the field guide) who have described many new species of
vertebrate animals. Germaine enquired whether they were accessing international
collections before describing new species to avoid the same species being described twice
(known as a synonym in taxonomic circles). It turned out that she was on the committee
of Bug Life, a conservation trust. Bug Life campaigns to protect the habitats of insect
species.
By the time we boarded the board I had been impressed by the extraordinary intellect
depth and breadth of activities with which Germaine Greer fills her life. We headed out
into a choppy sea with spray drenching us. I did not fail her. We showed her whales in
plenty. Sperm Whales had arrived for the Galle Literary Festival. The choppy sea had us
holding on to the whatever we could and we the boat bounced over the waves. We
watched the sleek torpedo shapes of Sperm Whales cutting through the waves. Their
short, bushy blows decorated the sea for miles around us. “There are hundreds of whales”
exclaimed Greer in a voice filled with enthusiasm and high in pitch with excitement.
They were travelling fast. We followed the Sperm Whales for a while before I asked the
crew to break away. The whales are used to a wide variety of fishing boats and enormous
ships in the shipping lane. But these boats don’t follow them. I was wary of creating any
stress with our boat following them. As we prepared to turn around, a Sperm Whale leapt
out of the water (a breach). There were to be more sightings. A Whale Shark near the
harbour entrance marked the end of Greer’s first whale watch in Sri Lanka.
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3. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (Nov – Dec 2008). Best of Blue. Serendib, the in-
flight magazine of Sri Lankan. November - December 2008. Pages 42-46.
The story behind the discovery that Sri Lanka is the best place in the world for seeing
Blue and Sperm Whales together.
When I set out in the last week of April 2008, with a crew from ArtTV and the editor of a
local society magazine (Hi), I knew I was on a hot story. The South of Sri Lanka is
probably the best place in the world to see Blue Whales. It is almost certainly the best to
see both Blue Whales and Sperm Whales together. I told my media guests that we will
probably see the first Blue Whale within forty five minutes of leaving the fishery harbour
of Mirissa. The Mirissa fishery harbour is close to the southernmost point of Sri Lanka,
Dondra Head. The next land fall (or ice fall?) is Antarctica.
Sure enough, the first Blue Whale spout was seen within forty five minutes and then
another and another. I could not resist boasting about one of the previous week's trips
with marine biologist Dr Charles Anderson. That time, in our search for Sperm Whales,
we had passed five Blue Whales, without stopping. "Yes, five blue whales" and I pause
for effect and continue "and we did not even stop!' I gesticulate, holding one palm with
five fingers outstretched for exaggerated effect. The TV crew looked green. I thought it
was with envy, but later discovered that it was sea sickness.
Shyamalee Tudawe, the ebullient editor let out a badly timed celebratory whoop which
interfered with the sound track, as I explained the extraordinary story on-camera. Three
decades of time during which we could have attained whale watching pre-eminence had
been lost as whale watchers and biologists remained deeply rooted in their conviction that
Sri Lanka's whale watching prospects lay in the troubled North-east, around Trincomalee.
That had finally changed. Now, we know that that the whales were in our back yard all
the time. We were not smart enough to have realised this earlier.
When I tried to develop whale watching, I realised that without the involvement of a team
of researchers, we could not go far. Knowledge is everything. It is the foundation of
wildlife tourism. Research by scientists and extensive field work by my team had
provided the platform for us to introduce Leopard Safaris, the Sinharaja Bird Wave,
Primate Safaris, The Gathering, Dragonfly and Butterfly Safaris into the local
vocabulary. Marine mammals researchers were thin on the ground in Sri Lanka and I
could not find anyone to engage with me. I had diddly squat to go on and whale watching
slipped into the 'B List' of things to do.
In 2003, a faint glimmer of hope arrived when I had a discussion with Dr Charles
Anderson at the British Birdwatching Fair in August 2003. A British marine biologist
resident in the Maldives, he studied cetacean strandings in the Maldives and deduced that
a migration of whales was taking place. His hypothesis was that in December-January
they would be passing Dondra Head within sight of shore on their way to the Bay of
Bengal. Then, back again in April to return to up-wellings off Somalia in the Horn of
Africa. I liked it. A theory supported by data which needed testing on the ground or rather
in Sri Lankan waters.
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We agreed that under the Jetwing Research initiative we will provide him with food and
accommodation at the Lighthouse Hotel, one of five hotels in Sri Lanka which are
members of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World. All Charles had to do was come over
and find the whales and my team would crank out the publicity and help create whale
watching dollars for the impoverished South. It seemed like we had a plan.
On 26th December 2004, tragedy struck when the Boxing Day tsunami hit Sri Lanka with
a terrible cost of human life. Charles decided it was best to postpone his visit that
migration season as everyone was pre-occupied with the aftermath. However the whales
did not go off the radar. The first confirmation of the theory came from Simon Scarff and
Sue Evans on 11th April 2006. They were training a group of Tsunami affected youth
from Mirissa Water Sports. The latter, operate the 54 foot boat The Spirit of Dondra.
They photographed a group of whales which were identified as Blue Whales by Anouk
Ilangakoon, a marine mammal researcher. Sue and Simon published their sightings in the
Sri Lanka Wildlife eNewsletter which was compiled by me and Charles initiated a
dialogue with them.
Charles visited in April 2007 and confirmed his theory with on-shore sightings from the
Dondra Lighthouse as well as by going out to sea. He had first suggested his theory in a
paper in 1999. In 2005, he had refined it further based on 2,000 records of sightings and
published a paper in the 'Journal of Cetacean Research and Management'. After that visit,
I knew we were sitting on something really hot. Since April 2006, I had carried in the
wildlife newsletter whale sightings sent to me by Sue Evans. But Charles Anderson's
hypothesis grounded in credible data, now field tested, was the hard science that I
needed, to launch a new product development and publicity crusade.
So finally, on the 1st of April 2008, I headed out with Sue Evans, Simon Scarff, Mirissa
Water Sports and a team of my naturalist guides, Wicky, Hetti, Jayaweera and Sam. Sue
laid out one of the British Admiralty Charts and we looked at the depth contours. The
continental shelf is closest to Sri Lanka to the South of Dondra Head. It is a mere six
kilometers away. Elsewhere it is about 30km or more away. Depths of one kilometer or
more are very close to this and this explains why both Blue Whale and Sperm Whales are
so close to Dondra.
Sperm Whales are the champion divers of the animal kingdom and dive to within one to
two kilometers to feed mainly on squid and to a lesser extent fish. Deep depths close to
Dondra make it more likely that they will stray close to shore. Blue Whales feed on krill
found in the first thirty meters of water. But they may use deep water when migrating.
"Whale' called out Sue pointing to a short bushy blow of water vapour. It was ephemeral
and melted away. But the whale kept blowing and the boat deftly steered to be parallel to
the whale. Close enough to see but not enough to stress it. We photographed its tail as it
fluked for a deep dive. The deep notch and shape and the 'knuckles' on its back confirmed
it was a Sperm Whale. There were more.
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On another trip with Sue, we had Blue Whales and I mean we had Blue Whales. At one
time we counted no less than eight Blue Whales simultaneously spouting. In the first 26
days of April, Anoma had done 22 whale watching trips and had seen Blue Whales on
every trip. I had done several trips and amassed few thousand images of Blue Whales,
Sperm Whales and Spinner Dolphins. In May 2008, I broke the story.
Over a thousand people gathered for the Galle Literary Festival in January 2008 and no
one went whale watching. Because no one really knew. The next Galle Literary Festival
and the whole whale watching season will be different. The story is out. The poor South
will can now harvest the seas for their whale watching Dollars and Rupees. With the
involvement of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and various state agencies, it
can be done responsibly with both client safety and the welfare of marine mammals being
paramount. In April 2008, I once had Blue Whales, Sperm Whales and Spinner Dolphins
in the field of view at the same time. I can't wait to try again this coming season.
Quick Facts
When to go - During December to April on days when the seas are calm. The migration
of Blue & Sperm Whales peak during December-January and again in April as they travel
Eastward and Westward respectively.
Where to stay - A broad range of accommodation is available from Mirissa through Galle
to Hikkaduwa, etc.
Responsible Whale Watching - Travel with a crew that exercises client safety and the
welfare of the animals.
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2. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (July-August 2008). Best of Blue. Serendib, the in-
flight magazine of Sri Lankan. July - August 2008. Page 24.
A short article on the discovery that Sri Lanka is the best place in the world for seeing
together Blue Whales and Sperm Whales.
A pod of Long-snouted Spinner Dolphins 'porpoised' a few hundred meters in front of the
boat. We had traveled for less than forty minutes from Mirissa Harbour before our first
encounter with cetaceans. I was on board with marine biologist Dr Charles Anderson and
two of his clients. We continued on and soon after we encountered a Blue Whale. Well,
perhaps we may stop for a while and I could take a few images of the largest animal that
has ever lived on this planet. Not this time. In the quest for sperm whales we passed the
Blue Whale. Blue Whales are thinly spread and very difficult to see. I can imagine an
incredulous reader wondering how could a group of photographers pass a Blue Whale
without pausing to photograph it?
The boat continued on, pass the second, then the third, then the fourth and the fifth, yes
the fifth Blue Whale. I would have been shocked into dis-belief if I did not already know
what was going on. By the time I boarded the boat with Charles, I had already been out a
few times on my own and realised that Blue Whales were very easy to see and
photograph in the seas South of Dondra Head, the southern most point in Sri Lanka.
Charles and his clients, they together with Lighthouse naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu had
already encountered and photographed several Blue Whales and were now focussing on
their main quarry.
For three decades Sri Lanka had suffered the misconception that it's whale watching
prospects lay around Trincomalee. Charles Anderson had deduced from his marine
research in the Maldives that a migration of whales would be taking place off Dondra in
December on their way to the Bay of Bengal and back again in April on their way to the
Arabian sea to feed on the up-wellings off Somalia. The first evidence for the theory
surfaced when Simon Scarff and Sue Evans who were training the boat crew from
Mirissa Water Sports began to report their encounters with whales in the Sri Lanka
Wildlife eNewsletter compiled by me. One thing led to another and by the April of 2008 I
was ready to break some exciting news to the world. Sri Lanka is probably the best place
in the world to see and photograph Blue Whales and is almost certainly the best for
seeing Blue Whales and Sperm Whales together.
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1. de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2008). Best for Blue. Is Sri Lanka the world's top spot for seeing blue and sperm whales? May 2008. Open Release Article
carried in several newspapers and magazines in Sri Lanka including the Daily Mirror,
Island and the Hi Magazine.
It was this article which first published in a special issue of the Sri Lanka Wildlife
eNewsletter which made the case that Sri Lanka is the best place in the world for seeing
Blue Whales.
--------------------------------------------
South of Dondra in Sri Lanka, may turn out to be the best location in the
world for seeing blue whales. Furthermore, it may also be the best for
seeing both blue whales and sperm whales together. This view is based on
recent observations and a theory of a migration of whales by marine
biologist Charles Anderson. During the season, a Blue Whale is easier to see to the south of Dondra, than a leopard in Yala.
In April 2008, South of Dondra, had a hundred per cent encounter rate for
the highly desired but usually difficult, Blue Whale. Both the largest baleeen
whale and the largest toothed whale are within sight of shore. Sri Lanka
could be the world's top spot for watching Blue and Sperm Whales together.
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne thinks its time to publicise this internationally.
The ascendancy of the Galle-Mirissa coastal strip to being an international hot spot for Blue and Sperm Whales, has just begun. This is the story.
In April 2008, I was able to see for myself how easy it was to see a Blue Whale in the
seas south of the area between Mirissa and Dondra Head. It was easier than seeing a
leopard in Yala. I ended April with over a thousand images of Blue and Sperm Whales
and Long-snouted Spinner Dolphins, which were good enough to keep. On twenty two
whale watching sessions in the first twenty six days of April, Jetwing Lighthouse
naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu saw Blue Whales every time. Seeing a Blue Whale during
April seemed to be almost guaranteed. Almost as sure as seeing an elephant in Uda
Walawe National Park. Due to the calm seas, between December and April, there are is
an outstanding window of opportunity for observing Blue Whales and Sperm Whales
close to shore. Marine biologist Dr Charles Anderson believes that sightings have peaks
in December and April because of a migration of whales.
The Deep South of Sri Lanka may be one of the world's best locations (amongst the top
two or three) for watching Blue Whales and Sperm Whales. Two of the most sought after
marine mammals. In fact for seeing both Sperm and Blue Whales together, it may even
turn out to be the best location in the world. This has not been my discovery. But it has
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been my privilege to be involved with those who have made this discovery during my
own quest to develop whale watching in Sri Lanka. Many people have been involved
over three decades in efforts to develop whale watching in Sri Lanka. They could each
tell their story from different perspectives. This article is the story from my individual
perspective of how Sri Lanka finally acquired the infrastructure and information to
become pre-eminent as a whale watching destination.
Whale watching will raise a series of issues for environmentalists, legislators and people
in the travel industry. These are best addressed ahead of the next whale watching season.
Before I go into this let me first explain how difficult it had been for whale watching to
get off the ground. As a nation, Sri Lanka has spent nearly three decades in failed
attempts to position itself as a whale watching destination. Much of this was a result of an
erroneous assumption that the whale watching had to be undertaken from Trincomalee.
Secondly, there was a paucity of data available to help develop whale watching as a
commercial activity for tourism. Thirdly, there were no boats suitably kitted out, big
enough and powerful enough for leisure activities in the seas. Fourthly, the cost of
product development was very high as I discovered when chartering fishing boats for our
initial forays out to sea.
The flurry of interest in marine mammals and whale watching began with the arrival of
the research vessel the 'Tulip' in the early 1980s. They found Blue Whales close to
Trincomalee, something which of course had been known to the locals. But they
publicised it locally and internationally. I remember as a teenager attending a public
lecture on their work. The Blue and Sperm Whales of Trincomalee featured in the film
Whales Weep Not produced by James R Donaldson II. His son James R Donaldson III
was present when the film was recently more screened at the Galle Literary Festival in
January 2008. The Blue Whales of Trincomalee also featured in the second of ten
chapters in the book 'On the Trail of the Whale' published in 1994. This book was written
by Mark Carwardine, a Briton whose name is synonymous with international whale
watching. When I met him in October 2007, I mentioned that Blue Whales were being
seen off the southern shores of Sri Lanka. But at this stage, I was still not sure as to how
easy and reliable it was.
In 2001, I began asking marine scientists about developing commercial whale watching.
A special supplement on Cetaceans by the British magazine 'Bird Watch' in 2001 listed
Trincomalee amongst the world's top spots for whale watching. But I knew Trincomalee
was not viable. My desire to see and photograph Sri Lankan marine mammals was further
stimulated when Rohan Pethiyagoda asked me to proof read Anouk Ilangakoon's book
the 'Whales and Dolphins of Sri Lanka' which was published in 2002. However my
attempts to go out to sea for whale watching began only in 2003, after listening to a
lecture given by Chris and Genevieve Johnson of the research vessel 'Odyssey'. On the
5th June 2003, in the superb monthly lecture series of the Wildlife and Nature Protection
Society (WNPS), they gave a lecture illustrated with images and video clips. Listening to
them and subsequently having viewed some of their material on the web, I felt that whale
sightings were possible anywhere along our coasts. Duncan Murrel, an award winning
wildlife photographer was aboard the Odyssey during its Sri Lankan leg. On the 2nd of
July 2003, at our invitation, he gave an illustrated talk at the Barefoot Gallery in the Sri
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Lanka Natural History Society-Barefoot-Jetwing lecture series, further whetting an
appetite for whale watching.
Subsequently, I set out to sea from Negombo with Duncan Murrel, a few journalists and a
team from the Jetwing Blue Oceanic. We had chartered a fishing boat for the trial run.
We saw nothing. Gazing out to the featureless open sea I realised it was like searching for
a needle in a haystack. In August 2003, Sunela Jayawardene, the architect of Vil Uyana,
went with Jetwing Naturalist Chandra Jayawardana to look for whales off Kirinda, and
came away with nothing. A few years later I tried again with my team and I managed to
see just two dolphins. Our wildlife watching out at sea with clients also produced no
whales. It seemed like a hopeless task.
In August 2003 I was at the British Birdwatching Fair where I discussed with Charles
Anderson how we could combine leopard safaris with whale watching in the Maldives.
With regard to Sri Lanka, I felt that we had to wait until someone independently came up
with the required infrastructure of boats suitably kitted out and fast enough for whale
watching. Meanwhile, the time and energy of the Jetwing Eco Holidays turned to
branding Sri Lanka for The Gathering of elephants, Butterflies and Dragonflies and other
eco-tourism products where the cost of product development was modest and much of the
infrastructure was in place. The one notable gap in infrastructure was the field skills. We
focused on filling the gap.
However, my collection of books and papers on marine mammals grew steadily. Over the
next few years we discussed whale watching on and off when we met at the British
Birdwatching Fair. Charles was developing a theory that there was migration of whales
between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea which took them near the shores of Sri
Lanka. He believed that the whales, especially Blue Whales and Sperm Whales, will be
travelling past the south coast in January from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. In
April, they would pass the south coast on the return journey travelling west to the
Arabian Sea passing Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He had first suggested this theory in a
paper published in 1999 which reviewed strandings and sightings in the Maldives.
Having reviewed his records up to mid 2002, a total of over two thousand sightings, he
refined his hypothesis further in a paper published in 2005 in the 'Journal of Cetacean
Research and Management'.
One of the key catalysts of the development of whale watching off the Southern coast
was the involvement of Simon Scarff and Sue Evans with Mirissa Water Sports. Mirissa
Watersports was set up in December 2005 with assistance from the Building a Future
Foundation (www.baflk.org) to help tsunami affected youth. Twelve youth were given
the use of the 'Spirit of Dondra', a 54 foot boat, fitted out for recreational activity. They
were to operate as a partnership and run a commercial enterprise. Sue Evans' a sailor and
her husband Simon Scarff' an angler were asked to help voluntarily with English,
marketing and skills development.
On 11th April 2006 Simon Scarff was training the crew in sport fishing when he
photographed some whales south of Dondra Head. These were identified as Blue Whales
by Anouk Ilangakoon. Simon's article was published in the March, April & May 2006
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issue of the Sri Lanka Wildlife eNewsletter which is compiled by me (see
www.jetwingeco.com for past copies). Charles Anderson who read this began a dialogue
with Sue Evans who had already advised the crew to maintain log of sightings.
The stream of sightings by Mirissa Water Sports communicated by Sue suggested to
Charles more evidence for his theory of a migration of whales which could be seen from
the southern coast. In April 2007 Charles Anderson climbed to the top of Dondra
Lighthouse to look for Blue Whales. On the second day when he climbed up with
Anoma, Charles phoned me within fifteen minutes to say that had seen their first Blue
Whale. I was excited that it had been so easy and realised that this was another significant
moment in the development of whale watching. I wished I could have joined them but I
was busy with preparations for an overseas business visit.
Charles had decided on Dondra Head because the continental shelf is at its narrowest
here, with the one kilometer depth being encountered a mere six kilometers out.
Elsewhere in the southern half of the island it is between four to five times that distance
to where the continental shelf ends abruptly and the 200 meter depth contour (200m
isobath) ends and plunges to a kilometer or more (see Chart No 813 published by the
British Hydrographic Office).
They also went out to sea thrice with the Mirissa Watersports Club and had good
sightings of Blue Whales as well as Sperm Whales which Charles had hoped to find. The
presence of Sperm Whales under such salubrious viewing conditions is also of
international significance. It was when I spent time on the boat with Charles that I
realised fully how significant Sri Lanka could be for whale watching. We may well be in
the top spot for those seeking Blue and Sperm Whales.
Sri Lankan waters are very rich in cetacean species with twenty seven species being
recorded to date. One hundred and five river systems contribute a steady nutrient flow to
the ocean. This together with upwelling at the edge of the continental shelf create ideal
conditions to support a food chain all year round in the warm tropical waters. However,
to see marine mammals, location and time is all important. With Trincomalee out of
bounds, I had been simply taking pot shots in the dark. Charles with his experience
carefully worked out when and where to see them. He realised that they were unlikely to
migrate passing the north of Sri Lanka because the Palk Strait was not deep enough. The
Admiralty charts showed that near Dondra Head would be the ideal location in which to
search for them. Charles had hoped to visit in 2005 to test his hypothesis but his visit was
put off due to the Boxing Day Tsunami of 26th December 2004. Nevertheless, his
hypothesis seems to have received the first confirmation from the observations of Simon,
Sue and the Mirissa Water Sports boat crew starting in April 2006.
Charles Anderson is quick to point out that much more work has to be done before the
hypothesis can be taken as confirmed. Mirissa Water Sports have consistently seen
whales from mid December 2007 to mid April 2008. Until a more detailed and longer
census is conducted using standard scientific techniques, any spikes in the number of
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whales due to a migration may not show up. It is possible that there is a resident
population always present which will result in sightings whenever conditions are good to
go out whale watching. I was out on the 1st of April as well as on the 26th April, when
the Spirit of Dondra did its last whale watching run for the season. I noticed a distinct
tailing off in the sightings of Blue Whales which supports the theory of migratory spikes.
December to February are extremely busy months for the Jetwing Eco Holidays team and
I had vowed to turn my attention to whale watching in earnest in April 2008, when
Charles was scheduled to return. The charter of a boat is expensive. But Jetwing
nevertheless needed more data to complement the three seasons of data already published
by Mirissa Water Sports, before we plunged in. In January 2008, I had a meeting with
Anoma and the General Manager and suggested that we place a whale watching flyer in
every one of the 63 rooms in Jetwing Lighthouse. This was easy to do as Sue Anderson
had helped Anoma to prepare a whale watching flyer the previous April. No one who
stayed at the hotel would fail to see that whale watching was on offer. Our guests would
benefit from a fantastic experience and I would get more valuable data to assess how
feasible and successful whale watching is from the south. The Galle Literary Festival was
staring in mid January and as agreed the flyers were in each room by then.
In March 2008, whale watching was bubbling. Walkers Tours, of the John Keells group
of companies, held a press conference announcing a tie up with the Ceylon Fishery
Harbours Corporation and the use of their vessels for whale watching. This was good
news as more infrastructure had become available for developing whale watching.
Colombo circles were agog with the news of large pods of dolphins in the hundreds, off
Kalpitiya. Meanwhile, from December 2007 there were steady sightings of Blue Whales
and Sperm Whales logged by Mirissa Watersports adding to three seasons of data.
It was time to get stuck into developing and marketing whale watching and in April 2008,
I set off from Mirissa Harbour with Mirissa Water Sports, Sue Evans, Simon Scarff,
Anoma Alagiyawadu and a team of naturalists from Jetwing Eco Holidays (Wicky
Wickremesekera, Supurna Hettiarachchi, Chandima Jayaweera and joined later by Sam
Caseer). We had travelled for around forty minutes when Sue Evans pointed out the first
blow of a Blue Whale. We also had at least five Sperm Whales. A few days later, with
the same group, we encountered around five Blue Whales in an area of less than 3
kilometre by kilometre square. This must be one of the highest densities in which Blue
Whales can be seen anywhere in the world. With Deepika Kumari of Lodestar who is
assisting Mirissa Water Sports with the handling of bookings, we had a discussion at
Sue's home with the fishing youth from Mirissa Water Sports. We discussed how we
could work together on marketing the whale watching and disseminating information on
the discovery of one of the world's best locations for Blue and Sperm Whales. Besides
web based activities, we promised to include whales in two forthcoming publications. A
new edition of a book on national park and reserves and another on wildlife itineraries. I
also promised to bring local and international press from print and TV, a formula which
had worked well with other eco-tourism products such as leopard safaris.
A couple of weeks later I was on the boat with Charles Anderson and two of his
American clients Corey and Diane Rusk who travel around the world photographing
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whales. They were on a 14 day whale watching tour. This was probably the first true
whale watching tour to Sri Lanka dedicated to clients. The clients had come specifically
to photograph Sperm Whales. One morning we steamed past no less than five Blue
Whales in search of Sperm Whales. On the horizon we saw the short bushy, angled blow
of a Sperm Whale. Behind it outlined against a tanker was the more powerful, towering,
vertical blow of a Blue Whale. I could also see a pod of Spinner Dolphins. Two of the
world's most sought after marine mammals and a pod of dolphins all in the field of view
at the same time. What an incredible experience.
My time on the boat with the Mirissa Water Sports crew, Sue Evans, Simon Scarff,
Anoma Algiyawadu and Charles Anderson have left me in no doubt how easy and how
fantastic the whale watching is off Southern Sri Lanka. On April 26th 2008, I did the
second of two filming sessions with Art TV. Anoma had been out to sea twenty two
times that April and he had seen a Blue Whale on every single visit. It was a hundred per
cent strike rate for the person who has probably engaged in more commercial whale
watching sessions in Sri Lanka (besides of course the crew of the boat). Several whale
watching sessions, Anoma's strike rate in April, a lot of background reading, and
especially the migration theory and conversations with Charles left me in no doubt that
South of Dondra was a whale watching hot spot. I had to publicise this internationally. It
was ironical that Sri Lankans had been travelling to Alaska and South Africa to whale
watch. This, when possibly the top spot in the world to see the largest baleen whale and
toothed whale was a short distance away from the enchanting villas and boutique hotels
of the Southern Riviera of Sri Lanka. What is needed now is a bigger burst of publicity,
locally and overseas.
The publicity does have a down-side and it is good that it is coming at the tail end of the
December to January season. Next season there could be mad rush to book boats for
whale watching. As of April 2008, there was only one boat operating from Mirissa
suitably kitted for tourists. One of the reasons why Mirissa is so good for whale watching
is because the continental shelf is at its closest near Mirissa and Dondra. The ease of
access to the whales means next season there could be a number of sixteen footer boats
all thundering out to sea for whale watching.
Whale watching will present environmentalists, regulators and the tourism industry with
two main issues to address. Parallel in importance will be the safety of the tourists and
the welfare of the whales. The issue of safety will be easier to address as licensed tour
operators and hoteliers will wish to ensure that client safety is paramount. Boats taking
clients out should have experienced crews who will not take undue risks, mobile phones
or radio communication for communicating in emergencies, life jackets, an adequate
stock of fresh water, GPS navigation equipment etc. In time, the better operated boats
will carry equipment which send out distress signals which automatically activate if a
boat overturns.
A fair amount of education and persuasion will be required to ensure the welfare of the
animals. On one trip we saw around ten Blue Whales and fifteen Sperm Whales in an
area which was approximately 7 km by 7 km square. There are enough whales during the
season for boats to spread around without having to crowd around a single animal. But
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would a situation arise where we see a swarm of twenty plus boats surrounding a single
Blue Whale? Once when I was with Charles we encountered a pod of an estimated 12
Sperm Whales. One cannot but worry about a bevy of sixteen footer boats racing around
and through a pod of whales and creating stress amongst such intelligent animals.
Parallel problems had arisen with vehicles congregating around a leopard in Yala or
during The Gathering of Elephants in Minneriya. But through education, I have also seen
vehicles being managed in a way that the animals are left un-disturbed so that many
visitors can enjoy a good sighting. I once observed a leopard cub sleeping for three hours
whilst seventeen vehicles lay parked beneath it without disturbing it. Similarly in
Minneriya I have on many occasions observed the staff of the Department of Wildlife
Conservation arranging vehicles in a long drawn out line to avoid disturbing the families
of elephants coming to water. There are parallels to watching whales and leopards. If you
keep your distance, you will enjoy a much better and longer sighting. Sometimes a Blue
Whale or Sperm Whale will swim close to a boat if you put your boat on neutral two
hundred meters away and let it chose to swim past you. The technique which works with
curious leopard sub-adults works with whales as well.
With whale watching, tour operators and hoteliers will need to insist that boat crews do
not rush up to animals and create stress. As the whale watching industry booms, NGOs
and others will inevitably be drawn into educating local boat crews on how to manage
whale sightings intelligently so that tourists have a longer sighting and the animal is not
stressed. Mirissa Water Sports has already benefited from the expertise of local cetacean
expert Anouk Illangakoon. Besides help in identification of photographs, she has spent
time on an on-shore training session with the crew to train them on scientific and
environmental aspects of whale watching. One drawback of whale watching is that unlike
in many national parks and certain reserves, a guide from a state agency will not be
mandatory. Any fisherman or boat crew could take people out. So there will be a greater
onus on the tourism industry to engage in responsible tourism.
The strip from Galle to Mirissa could in the years to come, become one of the most
important coastal strips internationally for whale watching. Occupancy in hotels in this
stretch could be significantly boosted by the inclusion of whale watching excursions
during the season. I suspect more than ninety nine percent of the whale watching will be
by people simply taking a one off excursion. It will be no different to visiting Pinnawela
or going on a single game drive in Yala. The special interest travelers with an interest in
marine mammals booking between five to ten marine mammal watching trips will be a
minority. Unlike birds, butterflies or dragonflies, whale watching for the majority of
tourists will not require specialist guides. It therefore has enormous potential for creating
income and livelihoods for a wide swathe of people. But it will have to be managed by
the state and private sector so that the welfare of whales is not compromised.
Marine mammals are presently protected by law although smaller animals are killed and
cut up on-board to reduce the risk of detection. The economic benefits of whale watching
will strengthen the case for their conservation. There will be peer pressure not to kill
animals which are generating income and employment. Since 1979 the entire Indian
Ocean north of latitude 55 South has been declared a sanctuary by the International
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Whaling Commission. The economics of whale watching will further the resolve of
Indian Ocean nations not to yield to pressure to resume commercial whaling.
Marine mammals researchers could also benefit from the growth of whale watching by
acting as on-board guides cum researchers. Chartering boats for research is expensive and
Dr Charles Anderson is a good example of a researcher who has capitalised on the public
interest to fund his research. He set up a whale watching company so that clients pay for
the time he needs to spend at sea collecting data. He is honest about the fact that he is
collecting data but judiciously manages the expectations of his clients whilst collecting
data. Not all researchers need to go to the extent of setting up a whale watching company.
There will be hotels and tour operators who will be happy to have a researcher cum
expert guide accompanying their clients. Under the Jetwing research Initiative the
Jetwing Lighthouse Hotel has supported the observational work of Dr Charles Anderson.
He is one of the most experienced cetacean researchers in the Indian Ocean and brings
with him a unique blend of researcher and whale watching tour operator. In his view, Sri
Lanka surpasses even the Maldives for the likelihood of success of seeing Blue Whales
and Sperm Whales. Those Sri Lankan scientists who are as street savvy as their foreign
counterparts can also harness the support and goodwill of the private sector for their
research. In March 2008, the magazine 'Explore Sri Lanka' carried an article on the past
efforts and future aspirations of the Ceylon Fishery Harbour Corporation (CFHC). It is
clear that they intend to play a significant role in developing whale watching by building
on their past efforts. They also intend to play a pivotal role in facilitating research by
taking researchers on-board.
One of the most important resources for deep south tourism in Sri Lanka lies a few
kilometers offshore, the Blue Whales, surfacing every twelve to fifteen minutes for a
breath of air. Finally, everything has fallen into place. The infrastructure of suitable boats
and the all important know how is finally in place. There cannot be a better location for
those fleeing the northern winter to go whale watching. The South of Sri Lanka is blessed
with beautiful beaches, snorkelling and some of the best boutique hotels and villas in the
world. I now have the confidence and over a thousand cetacean images to work with the
Jetwing Eco Holidays team to crank out the publicity.
Kaikoura in New Zealand has over thirty thousand whale watchers visiting it annually for
Sperm Whales. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (www.wdcs.org) estimates
that ten million people go whale watching every year. Sri Lanka could one day attract
several hundred whale watchers on bespoke tours and several thousand could be taking
one off excursions. It may turn out that Sri Lanka is the most reliable and easiest location
in which to see the Blue Whale, the largest animal that has ever inhabited this planet. Sri
Lanka may turn out to be the top location for seeing both Blue and Sperm Whales.
Besides more tourists, Sri Lanka will also gain from positive publicity overseas. The
success of whale watching will be closely parallel the development of pelagic cruises for
seabird watching. This will also contribute a wealth of ornithological data. At present
most Sri Lankan birders have not seen a Pomarine Skua. One morning we saw over forty.
The development of pelagic cruises for seabird watching will have to be another story.