Whale and Dolphin watching Sri Lanka

The recent discovery of the vast gathering of whales up to 300, is one good reason to do whale watching in Sri Lanka, below this web page you can watch a BBC documentary about whale gathering. Sri Lanka is also a popular destination for Dolphin watching excursions all around the year. The Best place to do whale watching in Sri Lanka is Mirissa because it is close to Dondra Point there is a resident blue whale colony in their natural habitat so you defiantly see whales. Apart from Mirissa, you can do whale watching in Kalpitya and Trincomalee as well...

What to expect, during Whale Watching

In these sailing excursions, you can see Blue whales, Sperm whales, Fin whales, Bryde´s whales, sometimes Killer whales, and lots of dolphin Species, including Risso's dolphins Bottlenose dolphins, Striped dolphins, and Spinner dolphins. Sometimes you can see reptiles and various fish species, for example, flying fish and Bluefin tuna.

Dolphin watching sri lanka

Sri Lanka is also a great place to watch dolphins, you can watch this highly intelligent creature in their natural habitat. Dolphins swimming, and diving alongside you in perfect synchronization, is a truly joyful and magnificent view you must watch. If you visit the Kalpitiya area from November to March/April. You will witness pods of up to thousands of dolphins, playing and doing their acrobatic things.

About Whales

Whales are classified as mammals (Mammalia), they fall into groups called "Infraorder Cetacea" and dolphins are not among this group. Whales are the largest animal ever to live on planet earth, the largest whales will dwarf dinosaurs. The closest living relatives of whales are the hippopotamuses, apart from their evolutionary tree over 40 million years ago.

The whales consist of eight surviving families: Physeteridae (the sperm whale), Balaenidae (right whales), Balaenopteridae (the rorquals), Ziphiidae (the beaked whales), Etotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), Eschrichtiidae (the grey whale), Monodontidae (belugas and narwhals) and Kogiidae (the dwarf and pygmy sperm whale).

Whales are fully aquatic placental warm-blooded marine mammals of the open ocean, they mate, feed, give birth, suckle and raise their young in the deep ocean. Whales range in size from 2.6 meters to 29.9 meters, The dwarf sperm whale is the smallest species commonly known as a Dwarf whale. It grows up to 2.7 m (8.9 ft) in length and 250 kilograms, and the blue whale is the largest weighing approximately 200 metric tons.

Whale species are predatory and carnivorous mammals, some species show sexual dimorphism, and females are larger than males. Blue whale only eats krill and it usually eats 40 million krill each day, roughly 3.6 Metric tons of krills. The daily energy requirement is 1.5 million kilocalories, while some Whale species eat planktons, Squid, Octopus, Small crabs, schooling fish crustaceans, and other invertebrates.

Whales' evolutionary branch come from land-living mammals like hippopotamus therefore they have to breathe air regularly, yet they hold their breath and remain submerged under water for longer periods, as much as 90 minutes. Whales have modified nostrils located on top of their heads, through which they breathe. However, they cannot survive on land, not because they can not breathe, they die from overheating, their body's thick layer of blubber will produce lots of heat unless they are not in the water they cannot disburse heat into the water and a whale's skeleton structural integrity become more vulnerable on land because there is no buoyancy to support their enormous 200-ton weight like in the open saltwater.

World Largest sperm whale gathering

Assemblies of Sperm Whales, the likes of which had not been seen for centuries, happening once again here in the tropical seas surrounding Sri Lanka, there are reports of the vast gathering of Whales up to 300 individual whales. They come here to avoid cold weather, raise their young, feed, and use it as a mating ground. there is a 95% chance you spot them while you're doing a whale-watching excursion.

Video footage credits - BBC earth documentary about whale gathering sea of Sri Lanka.