Whale Shark, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

I was out on one of my many field research trips to position Sri Lanka as one of the top whale watching destinations in the world. This particular trip was supported and arranged by Chitral Jayatilake the Head of Eco Tourism for John Keells Hotels. I also had two of the naturalists in his team, A.G. Gayan and Mohan Sahabandu from the Chaaya Blue Hotel joining me on this trip on North of the Trincomalee Harbour.

The trip was outside the whale watching season of December to mid April for Blue Whales. I was not hoping for too much as the modest data available so far suggested that the whales who chose to stay in Sri Lankan waters were small in number and difficult to see. Most of the Blue Whales had by the end of April travelled to the Arabian Sea off the Horn of Africa. We were however lucky enough to have a glimpse of what we believe to be one of the resident Blue Whales.

But the photographic highlight of the trip was this Whale Shark. We approached it carefully and turned off the engine and stayed a comfortable distance away from it. It then chose to investigate us. It approached the boat a few times and swam underneath it. I almost leant over and stroked it. We were 7 nautical miles away from the Chaaya Blue Hotel, when we encountered it. I have seen Whale Sharks off Mirissa in the South before. But this was the closest I had got to one. It's always a thrill to see the largest fish in the world. I was glad that I had taken my Leica compact with a wide angle lens capability which allowed this image to be taken from the boat.

We also had dolphins and pelagic seabirds like Brown-winged Terns on this trip.

The Blue Whale was seen at 7.55am on N 08 34 411, E 81 21 176. The boat departure point in the beach from the Chaaya Blue Hotel is on N 08 037 008, E 81 13 238.