Saving Sri Lanka's whales

Saving Sri Lanka's whales

On an excursion off Mirissa with John Keells Nature Trails, Shaveen Jeewandara experiences the thrills and spills.   27th November 2011

Our eyes are fixed on the far horizon. The sun’s rays illuminate the seascape. ‘Whale.. Blue Whale!’ a cry is let out from the boat. All eyes turn to the person who made the call and then follow his finger towards the distance. Suddenly the magnificent creature surfaces. The sight itself is overwhelming. The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus), the largest animal on earth shows itself for just about minute, before disappearing into the depths of the sea. The Blue Whales are seen in three locations off the coast of Lanka–Mirissa, Kalpitiya and Trincomalee. Mirissa being the prime spot out of the three, sandwiched between the towns of Weligama and Matara, is a 35 km or one hour drive south of Galle by bus. The whale watching season is just beginning as the Sunday Times joins a John Keells expedition on board a 20-seater power boat off Mirissa. “Passion is what drives me on this whale quest,” says Nilantha Kodituwakku, naturalist  Chitral Jayatilaka – to promote the operation. Having been inspired by the wildlife and backyard jungle treks of Polonnaruwa, where he grew up, Nilantha has ever since been in love with nature. “I don’t believe that whales are here for the season, I believe that they are resident creatures,” adds Nilantha. ”Of course the start of the season signifies the best weather conditions to see whales, and has yielded high success rates,” he adds, as the sun glistens across a sky that now beams clear blue. ‘John Keells Nature Trails’ have been pioneers in the industry and are known to have the safety of the passengers and the whales uppermost. The official season kicked off early November with a few boats going out to sea, in search of luck in its big blue form. At the entrance to the John Keells office at the Mirissa fishery harbour a whiteboard with dated entries lets us know that the last few outings have indeed yielded good results – with sightings of up to a dozen Blue and Sperm whales, and a staggering 300 Spinner Dolphins (Stenella longirostris), on a particular outing. Nilantha pulls out a sea chart to pinpoint the locations we’ll be heading to. The sea chart reveals the extraordinary fact that there is a high density of whales between the first and second international shipping lanes. “The whales are not deterred by the ships though the reason still remains a mystery,” says Nilantha. As though to solely prove his point, a magnificent Blue surfaces and does a trademark dive as an oil tanker steams past in the distance. The Mirissa sea is unique in many ways, being upto 300 metres deep within close vicinity to the shore, the continental shelf being very narrow here. This specialty is what makes these waters well-suited for marine mammal watching. The success rate of spotting Blue whales is almost 100%, with Sperm whales, Risso’s and Spinner dolphins showing themselves along the way. Along with John Keells, Mirissa Water Sports was one of the first in the industry. With a modest beginning of very few boats – three to be precise, they currently have 15 boats in operation. But these apart, unregulated boating has been a reason for worry, with a large number of fishermen-cum-whale watchers emerging from the region. The thirst for quick money has lured them into this enterprise. With their owners having little knowledge, these boats pose a threat to the long term viability of the industry. “The balance in the industry depends on proper regulation,” says Nilantha. “We know the regulations, we don’t chase the whales, we don’t separate the pack and we certainly don’t encroach on their personal space.” Such practices were evidently lacking in some of the small boats that took to sea. On one instance a small boat laden with foreign tourists ventured so close to a whale that it was literally on top of the creature. The whale obviously showing signs of panic, vanished out of sight. NARA chairman Hiran Jayewardene, speaking to the Sunday Times says that regulations are long overdue, although there have been discussions between the Department of Wildlife Conservation, Tourist Board and NARA. Dr. Jayewardene points out that regional co-operation on this matter is being sought. “We are presently working with the Centre for Research on Indian Ocean Marine Mammals (CRIOMM), and the Indian Ocean Maritime Affairs Co-operation (IOMAC), to adopt a common approach and a dedicated Marine Mammal Management Act.” Close to a hundred Spinner dolphins Just as a Blue whale is spotted by Nilantha, our boat slowly approaches from the rear, making sure the 100m distance is kept. The Blue acknowledges our restraint by remaining on the surface for a prolonged period before treating us to another breathtaking tail fluke. Four giant leviathans are sighted, before we head back, only to be greeted with the pleasant surprise of close to a hundred Spinner dolphins, as one chirpy dolphin rose from the water spinning upwards – justifying its name. Spectacular would be an understatement for these sights. Enjoying the spectacle, tourists Farida and Francis Gueroult from France, tell us that whale watching is what attracted them to the Southern coast. Francis says travelling has been their pastime for the last couple of years. “Sri Lanka is one of our top destinations, because of its ecology and its smiles,” beams Farida. “This industry should not be abandoned, however small boats should not be allowed to close in on the whales,” they say. Being one of the first to literally point a finger at the rowdy boatmen, Farida reiterates that the tourists should be the first to tell the local boatmen not to disturb the whales – solely to please them. Another stakeholder is the Sri Lanka Navy who recently launched their very own whale watching expeditions headed by Commander Kosala Wijesooriya. Their boat – the A543 had seen active service in Eastern waters. “We have decided to come into the industry as there was a lack of methodical operations,” says Commander Wijesooriya, explaining that the Navy aspired solely to provide a boost to the industry. “Sri Lanka has not even touched its potential in becoming a whale watching hotspot,” he claims. The Navy currently has no affiliated naturalist but is keen to take down methodical notes of sightings and log them for future use. “Once the industry blooms, we’ll not continue the enterprise, as the Navy is entrusted with other operations of prime importance,” Commander Wijesooriya says. The whale watching industry is on a tight-rope, struggling to find the balance between conservation, regulation and national economic gain. To strike this intimate balance is what authorities and conservationists must work towards if it is to be a sustainable and beneficial effort both for tourism in Sri Lanka and the majestic marine mammals that seek our waters. http://www.sundaytimes.lk/111127/Plus/plus_08.html

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Top spot for seeing Blue and Sperm whales

Is southern Sri Lanka the world's top spot for seeing Blue and Sperm whales?
By award winning wildlife photographer Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/whales/sri-lanka-whales.html#cr

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 good images of Blue and Sperm whales, and Long-snouted Spinner Dolphins. On twenty two whale watching sessions in the first twenty six days of April, Jetwing Lighthouse naturalist Anoma Alagiyawadu saw Blue Whales every time. Due to the calm seas, between December and April, there are is an outstanding window of opportunity for observing Blue and Sperm whales close to shore. Marine biologist Dr Charles Anderson believes that sightings have peaks in December and April due to the whales' migration.

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.

Wildlife watching in Sri Lanka
Award winning wildlife photographer Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne runs Jetwing Eco holidays. They were one of the first and are still the best wildlife company in Sri Lanka.

In 2001, I began asking marine scientists about developing commercial whale watching. In 2003 I set out to sea from Negombo with a few journalists and a team from the Jetwing Blue Oceanic. We had chartered a fishing boat for the trial run, but we were completely unsuccessful, 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, Jetwing Naturalist Chandra Jayawardana went 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. 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 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. 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. Simon's article was published in 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. Charles had decided on Dondra Head because here the continental shelf is at its narrowest with the one kilometre depth being encountered a mere six kilometres out.

On his second visit to the Dondra Lighthouse, Charles and Anoma phoned me within fifteen minutes to say that they had seen the 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. They also went out to sea three times 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 continual upwelling at the edge of the continental shelf creates 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, 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 Tsunami. 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 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.

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. 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 square kilometres. 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 youth from Mirissa Water Sports.

A couple of weeks later I was on the boat with Charles Anderson, 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 Long-snouted 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.

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.

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 square kms. There are enough whales during the season for boats to spread around without having to crowd around a single animal. But would a situation arise where we see a swarm of twenty plus boats surrounding a single Blue Whale?

Parallel problems have 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 metres away and let it chose to swim past you. The technique which works with curious leopard sub-adults works with whales as well.

Kaikoura in New Zealand has over thirty thousand whale watchers visiting it annually for Sperm whales. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (http://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. The success of whale watching will be closely parallel the development of pelagic cruises for seabird watching, which will 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.

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Navy in a whale of a rescue

a Blue Whale Rescue by Sri Lanka Navy
Sunday April 24, 2011, Sri Lanka
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110424/News/nws_28.html
It was Avurudu day, April 14. Whilst their fellow Sinhala and Tamil countrymen refrained from work during the Nonagathaya, Navy sailors and officers in the Inshore Patrolling Craft (IPS) had to conduct their routine check within the Trincomalee Harbor area.

It was around 10.30 am when a sailor spotted something like a submarine moving towards the harbor. He alerted the rest of the team and all eyes were on the moving object through binoculars, while the craft was maneuvered towards it. Suddenly a sprout of water shot up from the surface. “It is a whale” cried a sailor recognizing the unmistakable trail a whale leaves when they breathe.

“There is a whale approaching the inner harbor”, the message was quickly radioed to the operations room at the Naval Base. The whale was about 10m long and identified as a Blue Whale by naval officers who were experts on these marine mammals. The blue whale is the largest mammal in the world that can grow up to 33 meters. Hence, it is believed that the whale stranded in the harbor was a young one. Though young, it would still weigh several tons and if grounded, it could be difficult to pull it back. The whale was fast approaching the shallows of the inner harbor.

Commander- Eastern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Jayanath Colombage too was alerted, and he had ordered that necessary measures be taken to guide the giant mammal towards the deep sea. The sailors navigated their craft trying to block the whales’ path, but the whale appeared to be lost and seemed reluctant to turn back, continuing on its suicidal mission. Recognising that time was running out, more boats were deployed in an attempt to block the approaching whale. But the whale dived to avoid the naval blockade and continued moving towards shallow waters in a cat and mouse game.
This wasn’t the first time that Trinco Harbor had whales inside it. In April 2009 and 2010, there was a pair of Blue Whales within the harbor. But that time it wasn’t this hard to chase the stranded pair back to deeper waters, before they entered the shallow end of the harbor.

The attempts at dissuading the whale seemed to be in vain, when ultimately it reached a shallow corner of Trinco harbor. The whale was now only partly submerged with part of its body above the surface. These oversized mammals when stranded in shallow waters, can crush their internal organs like their lungs, by their own weight, resulting in their death. So time was running out for the whale with its survival dependant on the actions of the navy team. It was now around 2.30 pm, and while others were busy participating in Avurudu rituals, this group of sailors continued their struggle with the whale.

“Can’t we tow it back to deeper waters..?” an officer suggested. There wasn’t much time left to think, so the decision was taken to attempt the mammoth task. Last year, a naval team also towed an elephant stranded in the sea, but this blue whale is several times bigger than the giant of the land.

Five navy divers were immediately assigned for the rescue mission to try and tie a rope around the giant. A group of them managed to put a rope around the whale’s tail section. They then tried to drag it to deeper waters, but the whale was too heavy. The rope broke for the weight. More time lapsed for the Navy divers to tie another rope. This time a trawler was used. but the giant started pulling it. Even though exhausted, the panicked whale had enough strength to even to pull this large boat. In the attempt to pull the giant, the second rope too broke.

This time a stronger python rope used to pull ships was used. A diver climbed on top of the slippery giant while others got the rope around the whale’s belly underwater. They were careful not to injure the whale that was now exhausted with the struggle, and secured the rope across its fins. Realizing that the whale was too heavy for a single boat, this time two boats were deployed to pull the giant. There was no movement initially, but slowly the power of the two boats gradually overcame the giant mammal’s weight. The engines raised to their maximum started heading toward deeper waters.

Fortunately, the exhausted whale didn’t struggle this time, but the boats had to pull it quickly, as otherwise the whale could die by suffocation, if it panicked and could not breathe. So the naval team had to act quickly. After pulling the giant for about 15 min, they reached deeper waters outside the harbor. The rescue mission had taken about five hours and the whale was exhausted. But it had a companion waiting in deeper waters looking for its colleague. Naval officers believe this is the mate of the stranded whale that used to enter the harbor last years too in April.

After the reunion, the whale regained its energy, and with a swift dive, as if to thank its rescuers, the whale dived with its mate and disappeared. Though the Navy officers at the Trinco base missed their Avurudu, they were thrilled to have saved a life. What better way to celebrate New Year sharing their kindness..!!

Why Whales strand..?
What makes a whale beach itself? Most Marine mammals known as cetaceans use their own form of sonar and are sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field – they use both of these to navigate and find their food. Several things can affect these otherwise amazing skills.

* Navigation error – whales and dolphins sometimes get lost as they use the Earth’s magnetic fields to navigate the seas. There are a number of things (that we don’t yet fully understand) that may cause the animals to become confused, causing them to misread these magnetic lines and become lost.
* Noise pollution – anthropogenic (human-made) noise from drilling, dredging, shipping, offshore developments and seismic surveys can cause disorientation and distress.
* Naval sonar – the effects of sound waves from submarines used by the military (for detecting other submarines, ships etc) can disorientate whales and dolphins

Some species of cetaceans are very social animals and travel in family groups following a dominant leader. Tragically, if the group leader is sick and swims into shallow water, all the others may follow and become stranded together.
Source: The Natural History Meuseum – London
http://www.nhm.ac.uk

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Blue Whales Sri Lanka

Blue Whales, Sri Lanka

What “Moby-Dick” Means to Me
Posted by Philip Hoare, November 3, 2011

Earlier this year, in the waters of the Indian Ocean off the tip of Sri Lanka, I saw dozens of blue whales, their thirty-foot blows as tall as houses. That vast biomass was an Edenic sight, a glimpse of the world before “Moby-Dick.” Blue whales now swim up the Irish Sea, and last month Captain Mark Dalomba was astonished to see one from the wheelhouse of his Dolphin Fleet whale-watch boat off Provincetown, on Cape Cod.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/11/what-moby-dick-means-to-me.html

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