It seems just yesterday that Nilantha and Suren of Nature Odyssey sailed out from Mirissa on our first whale watching ‘recce’ back in September 2008. Thirteen nautical miles south-east of Sri Lanka, they did find the Blue whales.
The first images excited us all as we launched out frequently from Mirissa to explore whether there was potential down south for whale watching or whether it was just a passing spike. But those early ‘recces’ had a whopping 100% strike rate.
Twenty five years after Trinco was declared unsafe for whale watching as a result of the conflict in the north and east, two sets of naturalist teams from Nature Odyssey and Jetwing Eco stumbled upon a second whale watching site in the southern tip of Sri Lanka. CEO of Jetwing Eco Holidays Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne and I had by then been spreading the news of the leopards at Yala and the Gathering of Minneriya focusing on the unusual densities of these animals found in unique habitats located in an island the size of a pocket handkerchief when compared with the African subcontinent. We soon agreed that sharing information was going to save time and effort in switching the spotlight on Sri Lanka as a hot spot for wildlife tourism.
December 2008 to April 2009 was our first commercial whale watching season in the south coast. Walkers Tours signed up with the Fishery Harbours Corporation of Sri Lanka and the first season started with a bang. By early Jan 2009 we had a 96% strike rate of seeing Blues off Mirissa. The season ended with my team sailing on 86 excursions with 72 of them being successful, impressive data while Gehan’s team clocked up as many sailings and sightings the same year.
 |
| Unforgettable sight: Blue whale off Mirissa and top, a blue’s tail fluke |
Kalpitiya situated 125 km north of the International airport by then had won attention as an ideal setting for dolphin watching, and many tourists were heading there as Jonathan Martenstyn and his team at Alankudah arranged the logistics to enjoy the frolics of the Spinner dolphins not too far out from the shore.
With the conflict ending in May 2009, the re-emergence of Sri Lanka as a major tourism destination in South Asia was imminent. We at Walkers Tours and John Keells Hotels got busy making preparations to accommodate an anticipated rush in whale watchers for the December 2009 season. A late monsoon made the sightings irregular but by early December, reports indicated that whale sightings were back on the rise. By mid January 2010 – we were seeing Blues eight out of 10 sailings and many British tourists by now had Blue whale watching built into their itineraries in Sri Lanka.
Gehan and I exhibited our photographic work in London early September 2009 at the invitation of the Tourism Promotions Bureau and the exhibition titled “Sri Lanka the Ultimate Island Safari” showcased leopards, elephants and whales all found in a magical island in the Indian Ocean. The relaxed travel advisories for British tourists on Yala Park served well as by January 2010, we were already having full time Nature Tours from Europe.
Gehan meanwhile had been working on a theory of Dr. Charles Anderson ( a British marine scientist based in the Maldives) that the occasional sightings of whales closer to the dolphin line in Kalpitiya could be as a result of the continental shelf being much closer than previously believed. Armed with the latest depth charts from NARA (National Aquatic Resources Agency), mapped for oil exploration, Gehan spent much time off the Kalpitiya reef along the 400 – 600 metre depth line that is often frequented by the deep diving Sperm whales in their quest for prey. What he uncovered was stunning evidence that Kalpitiya is indeed our second whale watching hot spot with the continental shelf running to depths of 600 metres as close as nine nautical miles off the coast line, technically one hour’s sailing on a slow plying boat.
 |
| “Look ahead”: A sudden sighting by Nilantha |
What remains now is to re-discover the whales off Trinco. With the newest refurbished John Keells Hotel Chaaya Blu set to reopen mid May, hopefully, by June 2010, there will be many whale watchers flocking to Trinco this sesaon.
The season in the south is coming to an end as the seas are expected to get too rough for average sea goers towards the end of April. I had a couple of VIPs on a whale watching tour booked just after the election, among them Shaq of YES FM with his family.
Sunday, April 11, I received a call from Kolitha at 11 a.m, from five nautical miles out at sea. It was a successful morning, he said. Never did I imagine that the sighting would be a staggering 25 plus Sperm whales over thirty minutes, three clusters swimming and breeching to the amazement of all the guests on board. It was a stroke of luck that I left my video camera with Koli who had run through a full tape with his love affair with the Sperm whales.
And so the Mirissa season ended on a high. We now eagerly await the first whale watching season in Trinco after 25 years and as Gehan concludes by matching many hypotheses by scientists to all our field surveys, Sri Lanka indeed has three whale watching hot spots- Mirissa, Trinco and Kalpitiya.
The marine mammal densities can vary and more evidence will surface but there is little doubt that this island now blessed with sustainable peace will emerge as one of the top spots for whale watching in the world. |
E-mail
