Watching dolphins and whales in Kalpitiya

Posted on by Sanjeewa Padmal (Seerendipity)

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Kalpitiya is one of the beach holiday destinations on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka. Just like the southwest coast, or south coast, the northeast part of the island also offers a large number of interesting places for beach holidays. The beaches on the northeast coast are largely underdeveloped and remain Sri Lanka’s overlooked coastline. However, the beaches like Kalpitiya getting popular among travellers as it offers many interesting things for travellers. Many new beach resorts have been set up in Kalpitiya due to the growing demand. Kalpitiya is popular for whale and dolphin watching. Same time Kalpitiya is an emerging kite surfing destination in Asia.

Dolphins are one of the fascinating creatures in the world. Dolphins are considered to be one of the most intelligent animals in the world. You might have heard of interesting stories that revolve around dolphins. Some of them show. how the people, who were in trouble, were helped by dolphins in the ocean. But, this blog post is not a story that re-iterates the capabilities of this intelligent animal. This article reveals you one of the best places for spotting Dolphins, of course in their natural habitat.

Chances of spotting whales and dolphin in Kalpitiya

You may also have encountered this whale and dolphin watching spot during your holiday in Sri Lanka; it is none other than the popular surfing destination Kalpitiya. Kalpitiya is a popular beach holiday destination and a surfing spot that attracts a large number of travellers every year.

A very recently large number of whales numbering more than hundreds recorded in the waters of Kalpitiya.

This particular incident is a rare incident, however, Kalpitiya is one of the best places to spot whales and dolphins. Kalpitiya is inhabited by a large number of whales and dolphins and a popular place for whale and dolphin watching.

Kalpitiya as a destination for beach trous in Sri Lanka

Kalpitiya is a popular beach resort in Sri Lanka and sits north-west coast of Sri Lanka. Despite its pristine beaches, Kalpitiya is most popular as a destination for whale and dolphin watching and the number of travellers that choose Kalpitiya for Sri Lanka beach tours a is quite low, compared to most other beach resorts such as Bentota.

Is it possible to visit Kalpitiya on a day trip from Colombo

Kalpitiya is a popular one-day trip location in Sri Lanka and a large number of local tour operators offer one day trip to Kalpitiya from Colombo, in order to spot whales and dolphins on a boat tour.

Kalpitiya is easy to reach from Colombo and it takes only 2 hours for the journey. It is much easier to reach Kalpitiya from the beach resorts such as Negombo and Wailkkal. The tourists are offered Sri Lanka whale watching excursions by the boat operators in the area. Recently we had the opportunity to take this excursion with some of our guests.

Whale watching tour Kalpitiya

We left Kalpitiya in the early hours of the day and after travelling for about an hour we were able to hear the word “dolphin” from one of the members of the group. It was one of the members of the crew, who had seen them first. He showed us some object jumping on the water surfaces in the distance. We were not able to recognize it, due to its similar colour to the water.

There were several groups on the way with us, who were also much eager to see the dolphins. After travelling several minutes towards the objects that we saw, we were able to recognize a pod of dolphins. This time we see the mischievous and playful troupe of animal swimming ahead of our vessel. They seem to be playing hide and seek with us; they are appearing from time to time from the surface of the water while swimming fast simultaneously.

All of a sudden several animals appeared from other sides of the boat. It seems we were surrounded by them. Most of the animals are about four feet in length and dark ash-coloured. We were very happy to see the dolphin that was appearing on the water surface. They usually jump about 2 to 3 feet from the surface and you have a fraction of a second to take the glimpse of it.

All the travellers onboard were thoroughly enjoying this acrobatic show of this fascinating creature. Maybe you have seen the same picture in the zoo, where the dolphins are trained to do so. But, here it is totally different because here they are free and they definitely enjoying doing it themselves.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity of seeing dolphins in their natural habitat, and we were happy seeing them. Even though spotting dolphins and whales off Kalpitiya is often, there are instances that people come back without any signs of animals. All of a sudden dolphins started to leave us and swam away from us to the deep deep water. They accelerated the speed and suddenly we have the empty see around us.

Watching whales in Kalpitiya

Sri Lanka is popular around the world for spotting blue whales. “Blues whales Sri Lanka”, “Colombo whale watching” are very popular keyphrases use by the world travellers. We also get an email form travellers and most of them look for places to spot Blue whales.

Kalpitiya is not only good for watching dolphins but also for watching whales. The sea off Kalpitiya is one of the best places on the island to see whales, similar to Mirissa of southern Sri Lanka.

I believe that most travellers do not know that this biodiversity hotspot also attracts large pods of sperm whales. Kalpitiya rank among the best places in Sri Lanka to spot these superpods. A large number of researchers gather in Kalpitiya in the months of March and April in order to carry out various researches pertaining to sperm whales.

Watching sperm whale pods

Researchers have been able to spot large gathering of sperm whales off the coast of Kalpitiya since 2010. These sperm whale herds are consisting of hundreds of sperm whales (superpods), particularly in late March and April.

Earlier the animal researchers predicted that superpods of sperm whales are sporadic. But now it is found that these gathering of sperm whales is a regular event and takes place every year in the months of March and April. Suoerpods season usually starts mid-march and superpods occurring in the water until the 3rd week of April.

These sperm whale pods can be very big, scientist have spotted as much as 350 sperm whales in a superpod in 2015