Whale watching from Marissa - 25th November

We woke early to a stunning sunrise and mirror calm sea - this would make whale spotting from the boat much easier. We were taking a whale-watching trip with other Baurs clients on a boat from the Paradise Beach Club in Mirissa, and hoping to see any whale, but particularly the world's largest creature, the blue whale. This is one of the better places in the world to see this species, but it can often take several trips before you get lucky. We had one shot at this.

Sunrise at Paradise Beach Club

We left the crowded harbour on our boat and dodged our way out to sea past fishing boats. they are essentially large hollowed out tree-trunks with a stabilising float and no space to sit down.

Fishing boat off Mirissa

And another one

 It took less than an hour to reach the shelf break and ours and another couple of boats started to look around for signs of any whales or other marine mammals. We passed a green turtle, and a group of unidentified dolphins that none of us could get any ID features on. Then one of the boats peeled off to two smallish whales in the distance. As we approached, we could see a tall fin and lots of 'blowing' surely not, but they were killer whales. Not exactly top of the list of what I expected to see. 

Male killer whale - note how rounded the tip of the dorsal fin is

Male and female killer whales

They seemed to be feeding on something, was it a square of blubber floating in the sea? I have since seen a photo showing the male with what looks like part of a green turtle's shell beside it floating in the water. I was a bit disturbed by how many boats had gathered around these orcas - there were seven whale-watching boats clustered around these two animals. If they tried to move away, a boat always seemed to be in the way. Thankfully, we eventually moved away, as did a couple of others, to at least give these animals a bit of peace.

Great views for the punters

We soon spotted a group of blue whales, and among them a Bryde's whale. It was obviously a big whale, had a distinct, upright, slightly decurved dorsal fin and a prominent blow-hole, but like a minke whale, didn't appear to blow. It lacked the obvious white jaw of a fin whale. It seemed not to have the powerful rolling action of fin whales I have seen, instead having a much flatter surfacing action showing the dorsal at the same time as the blowhole. I can't say I could see the three ridges on the snout, but there is a hint of this on one of my photos.

Bryde's whale with blowhole showing at the same time as the dorsal fin

Bryde's whale - is that three ridges showing on the snout (just behind the blowholes in this photo)?

We spent a bit of time with the Bryde's, but we knew there were blue whales around and we wanted to get a bit closer to them. There must have been a three, or more likely four. They were clearly very large, with a tall bushy blow and light bluey-grey skin colour. I got the sense of the size of these animals not so much looking at the back, but mostly from the thickness of the tail stock which it showed as it went through an elaborate fluking display before a deep dive. We spent a bit of time with a lone animal and an enormous mother and her calf. In the photos, there are clear signs of remoras (suckerfish) hanging off the tail flukes of two of the animals we saw.

Blue whale fluking and remora just visible in the middle of the rear edge

Huge female at back with calf in front

Adult female blue whale - with these white markings on the tail flukes, this individual should be identifiable

A huge chunk of tail missing - again a feature for individual recognition

 We had done amazingly well on this trip, and to add to the trip, we passed a small group of spinner dolphins on our way home. They weren't up to much, although I since been told that they spin to dislodge remoras.

After a lunch back at the hotel and a rest, Pradeep and Kalinga kindly took us to Galle which has an old colonial fort next to the historic cricket ground. There was lots to see here, with ancient buildings, possibly the most attractive lighthouses I have ever seen. And boys playing cricket on every patch of ground.

Galle lighthouse

"Anyone for cricket?"