More amazing days with the whales and dolphins of Sri Lanka
Vanessa Williams-Grey continues to Wow us with the amazing whales and dolphins of Sri Lanka, in this her second blog of Sri Lankan whale watching. Be sure to check her introduction to the whale watching community as well.
Saturday 2nd March: Another blazing hot day.We spent 8 hours at sea, again traveling far inside the shipping lanes as these deep waters also contain nutrient-rich upwellings and so quite naturally attract the whales to feed here.It was quite sobering to be aboard a small boat, maybe 12-15 nautical miles from land, and watch massive container ships transiting these waters at some speed. We felt quite vulnerable and were grateful for the skill of our skipper but it was easy to appreciate that the largest creature on Earth is also vulnerable in the face of these giant vessels.Tragically, both blue whales and sperm whales are struck with shocking regularity.
Sightings today included 6 blue whales, a Bryde’s whale, another large pod of spinners (100-200), plus smaller numbers of bottlenose dolphins
Sunday 3rd March: More blue whales – at least 5 and as many as ten,
Monday 4th March:An early visit from 5 exuberant bottlenose dolphins whetted
As if to apologise for the delay in proceedings, around 200 spinners leapt and twirled as a finale as the boat headed back to port, escorted much of the way by flying fish.
Back ashore and time for reflection and further discussions with the local community. These waters are clearly teeming with whales and dolphins – and whale watching here has undoubtedly improved in the past year or so – but there is still much to be done in order to raise standards across the board and reduce the discrepancy between operators. WDC has long encouraged community-based whale watching in different parts of the world and here at Mirissa, whale watching has offered a beacon of hope to a village devastated by the 2004 tsunami.