Moves To Monitor Whale Watching in Ceylon

By Hafsa Sabry-Sunday Leader Sri Lanka

Mirissa, Sri Lanka is one of the amazing places in the world which allows tourists to have a closer look at blue whales and species of dolphins.
Previously whales and dolphins were nearly 50-100 km closer from the shore but as the tendency to watch whales began to increase, they are being forced into the deep sea causing them to get closer to the ships. Therefore, the boats should be regulated of their limits or the ship limits should be extended to avoid the risk of mammals attacking the ships and boats.
Larger and smaller vessels used to take tourists to watch whales but this also causes noise pollution makes the large mammals attack the vessels. “In such cases there will be harm to both the parties risking their lives,” said concerned the marine environmentalists.
‘Spinner dolphins’ and the other species of dolphins swallow tiny particles of food from the sea where the boat engines generate oil into which leads to the contamination of oil layers on the sea surface preventing the sunlight from getting through to the sea creatures.
The mammals are also obstructed to inhale adequate oxygen needed for their breathing.
Whale watching in Mirissa and other places in Sri Lanka is mostly carried out from mid-October to the end of November, which is considered as the warmest season for the warm blooded whales and dolphins. This is a threat to the large mammals as they are disturbed by the increasing number of boats set out for whale watching during the season. The Sri Lankan Navy and a few number of private whale watching centers take the locals and the foreigners for observations. However, some of them fail in carrying out a proper ride which is a violation to marine safety. As the riders are unaware of the food system, movements, dive patterns and their behaviour they disturb the mammals which are considered as a threat to their existence.
The sea mammals are threatened by human activities based on economical purposes while the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) it seems is not rectify the situation which has been going on since the ‘whale watching tourism’ began.
Even though environmentalists, conservation biologists and the marine safety protectors raised concerns over the issue, the management system of the DWC over marine safety is not effective.
The issue of the DWC lacking management officials and government whale watching centers in protecting the sea creatures has to be looked into claimed the environmentalists. When the issue was brought to the consideration of relevant authorities the navy whale watching centers supported the environmentalists to arrive at a sustainable solution as the officials of the department began to closely monitor the activities around whale watching, preventing the boats and the large vessels getting closer into the space of whales and dolphins.
However, monitoring activities seem to fade away after a while.
An officer from the DWC should accompany every boat carrying tourists for whale watching in order to monitor and regulate their activities threating the mammals.
In addition to that, a radio system should also be introduced in a bid to protect the marine safety of the whales and the dolphins.
“Larger vessels and the smaller vessels should be regulated with the help of a radio wave system since the distance that harm the mammals differ from each other”, said Ravindra Kariyawasam, Environmentalist and the Director for Center for Environment and Nature Studies (CENS). “Training and educational programmes for the boat riders seem necessary as they play the most significant role in taking tourists for whale watching.
If one of the riders sights a large mammal or any special sperm and killer whales they call the others to observe it causing a sudden unrest for the mammals,” added Kariyawasam.” Whale watching is still not regulated by the DWC or by any other government agency. There have been number of instances reported where the whales were injured due to reckless ‘boat riders’ as they were threatened and agitated when several boats came from all directions. Nevertheless, proper guidelines should be set and implemented for smaller vessels and the larger vessels.
The DWC fails to provide such guidelines for boat riders who fail to maintain their space from the whales and the dolphins intruding their habitats. However, after whale watching commenced the dolphins at Mirissa, there have been instances where 30-40 dolphins were killed in a day which severely was under criticism for the massacre.

DWC
The Director General of the DWC Chandrasiri Bandara speaking to The Sunday Leader said that the authorities have failed to look into the issue for the last three years but they have recently appointed officials in Mirissa and Kalpitiya to monitor whale watching. “New plans for maintaining appropriate whale watching in the sea will also be implemented as the drafts are underway,” he said adding that proper implementation and management system will be soon come into effect. He went onto say that the department has now persuaded the Sri Lankan Navy to form a marine sector within the department and train people in the division to look into the issue while, protecting the marine mammals of our country.