Sperm Whale Breaching, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

On the 19th of April 2012, 35 km east of Trincomalee, I was able to observe a dramatic range of behaviour of Sperm Whales. My family and friend Tilak Conrad assisted me with documenting this behaviour for an article. We witnessed a range of behaviour from spy hopping, side-fluking, fluking up, roll-over, head-stand (tail extension), tail rotation to lunges and breaches. The most spectacular were the breaches.

Male Sperm Whales go piebald with age. The Sperm Whale in the photograph could be a male. But I cannot be sure. Researchers such as Hal Whitehead have pointed that females are more likely to spy hop and breach in the presence of mature males. Jonathan Gordon in his research on Sperm Whales off Sri Lanka found mature males to be rare. At this stage I remain uncertain as to whether the breaching whale is a male or a female.

I was on a whale watching research trip hosted by Chaaya Blu. Chitral Jayatilake the Head of EcoToursim for John Keells Hotels had arranged to host me and my family. He also arranged for me to have two long trips out to sea with Jeyaraj. The latter is one of the boatmen who has benefitted from 300 man hours at sea with wildlife photographer Amos Nachoum. He was very good at allowing the Sperm Whales to approach the boat at their leisure without stressing them by us taking the boat right up to them. Sperm Whales in Sri Lanka are used to boats and are curious animals. If left undisturbed, they may swim right up to a boat. Nature Trails naturalist B. Dayarathne briefed me on recent sightings which made it easier for me to plot a course to locate the whales. Earlier on, in March 2012, both 'Daya' and Nature Trails naturalist Nilantha Kodithuwakku had observed a super pod of Sperm Whales.