Whale Watching

 Friday 14th February – This morning was potentially going to be one of the highlights of the trip for three of the group as we were going out on a Whale watching trip, with the main target being Blue Whale. Dave had seen Blue Whale before but still seemed pretty excited at the prospect of seeing one again!

After all the formalities had been sorted we boarded the boat and were soon heading off out of Mirissa Harbour on our quest to see the largest animal ever to have lived on earth. Sri Lanka has become one of the top places in the World to see this huge animal, thanks to the southern tip of the island being in such close proximity to the deep waters of the continental shelf. Where these colder waters meet the warmer coastal waters a cycle of rising nutrients is created where Krill feed on the rotting matter from the ocean bed and in turn become food for the Whales.

Ashoka had told us that we were booked on with the best boat company, Mirissa Watersports, and this appeared to be the case as we were heading out as one of two leading boats into the vast open sea where the next land is Antarctica, 5,000 miles away.

There were a few birds on the way out including Little, Whiskered and Great Crested Terns but after an hour there was no sign of any whales, despite already passing the area where some had been seen the previous day.

At 7.45am there was a shout from one of the watchers on our boat and in the distance we could see a water spout shooting up. Blue Whale!!  The boat turned and headed towards it as quickly as possible as it resurfaced again, enabling everyone on board to get great views as the engine was cut and we drifted slowly closer.

There was a strange atmosphere of quiet elation as everyone soaked up the sight and sounds of this immense animal as it blew a couple more times and then slowly sank below the surface.

These two Blue Whales headed close to our boat.

Tail up is the sign of a deep dive

Having had our fill of Whales, the boat headed off back towards the harbour but we weren’t finished with the Cetacean watching yet. We were making our way to a group of Spinner Dolphins and soon they were alongside the boat and over the next three hours we were treated to incredible views of at least seven different whales and at one point when the boat was stationary with the engines cut, two of these massive animals passed by in front of us just 10 metres away. Incredible!!

These were a complete contrast to the Blue Whales. The slow, powerful, almost gentle lumbering nature of the Whales was replaced with the manic, nimble exuberance of the Dolphins as a large group travelled at speed just below the surface before a number of individuals leapt from the water, spinning round in mid-air and then disappeared back under again. Everyone on boat was loving it and we watched and photographed these fantastic dolphins for another half an hour. The birds were a bit of a sideshow on this trip and seabirds were few and far between but we had a few Bridled and Sooty Terns before it was soon time to head back to the harbour after an exhilarating few hours.