Monday, May 3, 2010

Whales and Dolphins - Mirissa, Sri Lanka

April 5th to 7th, 2010

In 1985 national research programme began documenting not only the occurrence of large whales but also of small whales and dolphins all-round Sri Lanka. Soon it became evident that Sri Lanka was somewhat unique as the diversity of cetacean species in her territorial waters was found to be extremely high. This high species diversity surprised many international cetologists and Sri Lanka would rename as the whale capital of the Indian Ocean.

This is the first Naturetrek tour which manly focuses on Whales and Leopards. For whales watching, we stayed at Unawatuna beach resort. Each day we drive thirty minutes from the hotel to the Mirissa fishing port. Then we boarded to a whale-watching vessel for a four to five hour excursion. The distance sailed will depend on whale sighting and sea conditions. On April 5th we did both morning and afternoon boat rides. The afternoon session was very successful. April 6th and 7th we did only morning boat rides.

Species of CETACEANS recorded during the tour

April 5th

1. Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
2. Bottle-nose Dolphin (Tursiops truncates)
3. Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris)

Two Whale cubs were recorded. We could not count the Dolphin numbers

April 6th

1. Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
2. Bottle-nose Dolphin (Tursiops truncates)
3. Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris)

April7th

1. Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
2. Bryde’s Whale (Balaenoptera edeni)
3. Bottle-nose Dolphin (Tursiops truncates)
4. Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris)


Friday, December 19, 2008

Endemic Tour - NatureTrack


Oriental Bay Owl - Phodilus badius badius
 
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