Blue Whale

The blue whale around Sri Lanka is reportedly the pygmy blue whale (Alling et al. 1991), although Brownell and Donahue (1994) proposed that northern Indian Ocean animals are a separate subspecies, Balaenoptera musculus indica. Northern Indian Ocean blue whales are reported to breed six months out of phase with the pygmy blue whales of the southern Indian Ocean (Mikhalev 2000).

On three cruises around the island in 2003 it was the most frequently sighted baleen whale, with nine sightings of about 12 animals, mostly off the south-east coast near the Basses Submarine Canyon, plus a juvenile off the west coast (de Vos et al. 2012). Strandings and sightings have been recorded through the year, which suggests the whales either do not migrate regularly or keep a population here all year, and faecal matter seen on the survey points to Sri Lanka being a feeding ground (de Vos et al. 2012).