Vast Indian Ocean around the island of Sri Lanka flourishes with all kinds of marine mammals. Until recent times, only fishermen, navy and may be wealthy yaught owners were able to see these beauties with their own eyes. Things are changing for good in recent times.
As a part of these new developments, Fisheries Department under the ministry of fisheries and Aquatic Resources introduces an ocean safari service for both foreign and local tourists.
Initially this will be operated from the “Mirissa” fisheries harbor, in Matara district. Safari will be into the southern ocean (North Indian Ocean) towards the international shipping lane which is about 13 nautical miles from the cost. The area around this shipping lane is known to inhabit large schools of whales belongs to various different species. And alone the way to the area, it is not rare to site large pods of dolphins too.
Blue whales, Sperm Whales and humpback whales are sited in large numbers in the area ,where the ocean is about 3500 meters deep. It is truly a majestic seen to watch how humpbacks jumping into the air and falling back to the water creating long running waves. On a lucky day, few Orcas will also add verity to the journey.
This whole safari takes about 6 hours to complete. Boats leave the harbor at about 6.30 in the morning since it’s very hard to ride towards the land during high noon with strong winds towards sea. Every traveler will be provided with a life jacket and every boat carries two experience lifeguards and a specialist guide too. A single boat can carry up to 12 people and for larger groups they provide special boats on request.
The service is open for both foreign and local tourists.
This is a good opportunity for most people since this whole idea of whale watching is relatively new to the local travelers.
More information is available from the manager of the Mirissa fisheries harbor (041-2251660).
Reference:
(“Enna yanna thalmasunge natum balanna” – Divaina(2009-06-16) – Ranjan Gamini Jayawardena)
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