Whale Omens

Ventured deep into the Indian Ocean (more than 16 miles) yesterday in search of the mammoth creatures & it looks like my worst fears are coming true. The Whales have moved on?

During the last several years, there was a very high ratio of spotting Blue & Sperm Whales off the coast of Mirissa. The season starts in the down south from November & it runs until the mid of April. Last year it started during the latter parts of October. But this year almost one & a half months are gone & there're no good whale sightings.

I don't want to jump the gun, but we could be witnessing a change in the Whale behavior. This could have happened due to two reasons.

The first reason could be as a result of The Global Warming. Ice is melting & the Ocean waters are becoming colder by the day. This could have pushed the whales to change their migratory paths & pushing the residential blue whales further towards the equator in search of the heat & away from the Sri Lankan shores.

The other reason could be due to the increased & unregulated whale watching impact on these animals. It's very sad to see boats speeding away towards the whales once they are being spotted, with no regard to the animals' safety at all. The boat crew is only concerned about getting the best view of the whale which would result in a better tip. This has been going on for years & some of the whales have died after getting caught to the engine motors. Also many of the boats are very loud & are not suitable for whale watching. It scares the animals away.

What the Wildlife Department couldn't realize was that the Blue & Sperm Whales are not aggressive. They will not defend their territory like most animals in the world. They would just move away from that area.

Whale watching has become the golden geese in Sri Lanka & we wanted all the golden eggs at once. Now it seems like the final goose is at its last breath & would soon perish.

I sincerely hope that I'm wrong since I don't want to be a part of a nation that destroyed one of nature's beautiful creations, just for our viewing pleasure. I don't think our humanity has degraded to that level & into a sadistic frame of mind. But soon, we will have to figure out the reason for this change, before the Whales move away from Sri Lanka forever, never to return.