Kalpitiya Marine Life: What You Will Actually See

Spinner Dolphin Common

Stenella longirostris

A small, slender dolphin that leaps clear of the sea and spins like a top in mid-air.

Where: Open water off the Kalpitiya peninsula, on the early boats. Best: November to April. Super-pods of many hundreds and sometimes over a thousand animals. The largest dolphin spectacle in South Asia and the reason to come here.

Bryde's Whale Occasional

Balaenoptera edeni

A warm-water baleen whale that lunges up through bait balls with its mouth wide open.

Where: Offshore, often alongside the dolphin pods. Best: November to April.

Blue Whale Rare Endangered

Balaenoptera musculus

The largest animal that has ever lived, and off Sri Lanka a population that mostly does not migrate, which is why it can be seen almost year round.

Where: Offshore in the deeper water beyond the Bar Reef. Best: Dec-Apr. Secondary to the dolphins here, but recorded.

False Killer Whale Rare Near Threatened

Pseudorca crassidens

Has been recorded offering captured fish to divers and to other dolphins, apparently as a gift.

Where: Deep water offshore. Best: November to April.

Sperm Whale Rare Vulnerable

Physeter macrocephalus

The deepest diving mammal on earth, hunting squid two kilometres down, and occasionally gathering off Sri Lanka in pods of hundreds.

Where: Offshore deep water. Best: Dec-Apr. Recorded alongside the spinner dolphin superpods.

Killer Whale Very rare

Orcinus orca

The ocean's top predator, and off Sri Lanka they are known to hunt other whales, which is a thing very few people ever witness.

Where: Blue water beyond the shelf edge on a full day boat trip. Best: December to April. Predation on other whales has been recorded in these waters.

Dugong Ultra rare Vulnerable

Dugong dugon

The gentle sea cow said to have inspired mermaid legends, grazing seagrass meadows in warm shallow seas.

Where: Seagrass in the shallow water towards the Gulf of Mannar. Best: November to April. Most reported dugongs here turn out to be dolphins. Genuine records are now very few.

Pied Kingfisher Regular

Ceryle rudis

The largest bird in the world that can hover in still air with no wind to help it, which is how it fishes open water no perch reaches.

Where: Lagoon and salt pan channels. Best: Year round.

Crab-plover Occasional

Dromas ardeola

The only bird in its family anywhere on earth, and the only wader that nests underground.

Where: Puttalam lagoon mudflats and the sand spits at low tide. Best: Nov-Mar. The most accessible site in the country. Flocks stand together on open sand at the tide edge.

Eurasian Spoonbill Occasional

Platalea leucorodia

Feeds by sweeping that absurd bill side to side through the shallows, snapping shut the instant it touches something alive.

Where: Puttalam lagoon and the salt pans. Best: Nov-Mar.

Great Thick-knee Occasional Near Threatened

Esacus recurvirostris

A heavy, huge-eyed shorebird that stands motionless on open shingle all day and only comes alive at dusk.

Where: Sand spits and the lagoon shoreline. Best: Year round.

Greater Flamingo Occasional

Phoenicopterus roseus

Several thousand birds on the Bundala salt pans in a good winter, filtering brine shrimp upside down.

Where: Puttalam lagoon salt pans. Best: Dec-Mar. Secondary to Bundala but genuinely reliable in a wet year.

Green Sea Turtle Regular

Chelonia mydas

The great grazing turtle of the tropics, the only sea turtle that turns vegetarian as an adult.

Where: Bar Reef and the surrounding shallows. Best: November to April.

Hawksbill Turtle Occasional Critically Endangered

Eretmochelys imbricata

The reef's sponge specialist, its beautiful shell also the reason it was hunted to the edge.

Where: Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary. Best: November to April.

Olive Ridley Turtle Occasional Vulnerable

Lepidochelys olivacea

The smallest and most numerous sea turtle, famous elsewhere for mass nestings of thousands at once.

Where: Nesting beaches around Kandakuliya, and offshore. Best: November to March. Sri Lankan waters feed animals that nest at the Odisha arribadas in India.

Beaked Sea Snake Rare

Hydrophis schistosus

Drop for drop, one of the most venomous snakes in the sea, and it is responsible for most sea snake bites in Asia.

Where: Shallow water and the Puttalam lagoon approaches. Best: November to April.

Indian Chameleon Rare

Chamaeleo zeylanicus

Sri Lanka's only chameleon, and it is genuinely scarce here, so finding one in a thorn bush in the northwest is a proper piece of luck.

Where: Coastal thorn scrub and the Puttalam approach. Best: Year round.

Little File Snake Rare

Acrochordus granulatus

Loose baggy skin covered in rasping granular scales, used to grip slippery fish that no smooth snake could hold.

Where: Puttalam lagoon shallows and seagrass. Best: November to April.

Saw-scaled Viper Rare

Echis carinatus

A small viper that saws its own flanks together to make a sizzling warning, and in Sri Lanka it lives only in the arid north.

Where: Arid coastal scrub and sandy ground. Best: Year round, night. The nearest this species comes to a normal itinerary.

Powder Blue Surgeonfish Common

Acanthurus leucosternon

A stunning Andaman signature fish, powder blue with a yellow sail and a scalpel-sharp blade at the base of its tail.

Where: Grazing the coral tops of Bar Reef. Best: November to April.

Maldives Anemonefish Regular

Amphiprion nigripes

A clownfish found only in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the Lakshadweep, and nowhere else on earth.

Where: Anemones on the shallow coral of Bar Reef. Best: November to April.

Sebae Anemonefish Regular

Amphiprion sebae

The big dark anemonefish of the northern Indian Ocean, with a yellow tail that gives it away from a distance.

Where: Sandy margins and carpet anemones around Bar Reef. Best: November to April.

Black Pyramid Butterflyfish Occasional

Hemitaurichthys zoster

They gather in the current in hundreds, and the white wedge on each flank turns the whole shoal into a drifting cloud of triangles.

Where: Current-swept edges of Bar Reef. Best: November to April.

Indian Sailfin Tang Occasional

Zebrasoma desjardinii

It raises a dorsal fin nearly as tall as its own body, and a startled one seems to double in size in front of you.

Where: Bar Reef coral tops. Best: November to April.

Yellowhead Butterflyfish Occasional

Chaetodon xanthocephalus

An Indian Ocean butterflyfish that pairs for life, and you almost never see one without the other close by.

Where: Bar Reef coral and rubble. Best: November to April.

Blacktip Reef Shark Occasional Vulnerable

Carcharhinus melanopterus

The neat little reef shark of the shallows, its black-tipped fins often cutting the surface over sun-lit sand flats.

Where: Shallow reef and sand flats around Bar Reef. Best: November to April.

Small Giant Clam Regular

Tridacna maxima

The electric blue and green lips are not pigment for show. They are farming light, and the clam gets most of its food from algae living in its own flesh.

Where: Shallow coral of Bar Reef. Best: November to April.

Staghorn Coral Common

Acropora species

The fast-growing branching coral that builds the living thickets of the reef, nursery and shelter for a whole community.

Where: Bar Reef, the largest reef system in Sri Lanka. Best: November to April. Bar Reef was severely bleached in 1998 and again in 2016. What is there now is regrowth.

Table Coral Regular Near Threatened

Acropora hyacinthus

Grows outward faster than it grows up, spreading a flat platform that shades out every competitor beneath it.

Where: Bar Reef coral flats. Best: November to April.