Sperm Whale off Kalpitiya Peninisula, Sri Lanka

In March 2010, I published an article in the Sunday Times explaining why the seas off the Kalpitiya Peninsula will be Sri Lanka's third whale watching Hotspot. On Friday 22nd April, I was once again exploring the seas for pelagic seabirds and whales, hosted by Dallas and Jonathan Martnestyn at Dolphin Beach (Makara Resorts). I was on a boat trip accompanied by Viren Perera and Giles Scott, two of the co-investors of Alankuda (Barr Reef Resort) who together with Dallas Martnestyn had hosted my previous research trips.

I asked the boatman Yasaratne to take the boat north along E 079 38, along which I knew Sperm Whales are regularly found, at least in April, travelling either North or South bound. Before long, Yasaratne spotted the first blow from a group of 8 Sperm Whales.

I asked him to do an 'arc forward'. This is where we curve away from the whale and then move ahead to position ourselves between 0.5 to 1 km away in its path. The whales covers this in a few minutes and has the option of moving away or maintaining its bearing. This whale altered course to investigate us and came to within a foot of the boat. It swam alongside the boat and moved just three feet to the front of the boat and then dived for a short feeding dive. I have found even with leopards in Yala, especially sub-adults, if you park a few hundred meters away from them, their curiosity overcomes them and they will come up to investigate the observers.

I managed to grab this shot of the diving Sperm Whale by leaning back whilst standing on the boat. I had to lean back because it had come so close. The Sperm Whale was completely relaxed and not in any way stressed by our presence because we had not chased it for a close up picture. We gave the whale the option of getting close to us. My daughter Amali also managed some vide footage on her compact digital.

Canon EOS 1DS MKII, Canon 100-400mm, f5.6, IS.