It's been silent around here and I apologise - but I do have a justification. Last week was the 3rd annual Australia National Network in Marine Science conference. Its an event that brings together early career researchers from James Cook University, Queensland, the University of Tasmania, Hobart and the University of Western Australia. Appropriately, the theme of the conference was “Marine Science in Tropical, Temperate and Southern Oceans”. ANNIMS presents a great opportunity to learn about science happening around Australia, network and exchange ideas.
The paper I presented discussed drivers of inter-annual variability in blue whale distribution off Southern Sri Lanka. Basically, what causes changes in where we see the blue whales from year to year. I got some interesting feedback that will help me move forward with the work and have a more complete analysis for presentation at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Salt Lake City next year.
I hope you all had a peaceful two weeks - don't get too used to it :)
I saw a video of the ABC program on a Sri Lankan friend's Facebook page. Good to see the wonderful study that you are doing. All the best with that. Several issues related to conservation of these beautiful mammals are important, including the heavy ship traffic in the area. There are ways to mitigate some of the issues I suppose. It will be nice to interact with you and others there in Sri Lanka and see how some of us can help you guys on the ground (or sea!). All the best.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your message Capt. Anup and for your encouragement and support - means alot! Yep - heavy shipping is a huge problem...southern sri lanka is a veritable shipping highway and yes that is of huge conservation concern. Thanks for your offer of help...I am sure we will need it in the future - these whales are after all common to all our waters and it is impossible to protect them if we don't all work together! And regarding your latest comment - well put. Size doesn't matter we should consider ourselves lucky and be responsible for ensuring their survival into the future!
ReplyDeleteiss asha de vos...hey there how have ya been....im amyuru chathuranga wadanambi...im a person who works as a marine navigator for a german shipping company.....so im quite interested in the scope ya are in to....i adore the diversity all around the sri lankan waters....as mariners we happen to see the beauty all around the world oceans in daily basis....what i knw is that sri lankan waters are the brith place for the largest blue whales that ever lived on planet earth.....i dnt have any evidence to prove ya that something i encounted around a year ago from this very date..!! once when we were navigating around 20 nautical mile away from dondra we saw some creature which was more than 50 meters long.it was just swimming around 10-20m to our vessel's starboard beam..i dnt have anything to prove ya about the credibility and the authenticity of what i have mentioned here but you have to believe what i say..i swear to god i saw that thing.....thank god i saw that documentary about blue whales in sri lanka ya had done for some over seas television network...so i wanted to tell this to ya ...so i decided to google out yo name and find out for any means of contact where i can find a chance to share my experience with......actually we were not quite sure of that creature we saw on that day..( as i can remember this happened some where between october to december last year 2010).. it was more like a whale actually....but whales dont grow upto 50 odd meters which is obvious......i mean thats huge.. ya knw it better than i do .....being a marine biologist i thought that this info i just shared with ya would worth smthing for ya...i love the marine world ,,, so i felt like ya are one of those passionate sri lankans who is desperate to find the genuine roots of these beautiful and innocent creatures.....only myself and one german captain who was in command our vessel saw this.....what i cant figure out is if the whale dont grow upto 50 odd meters...what the hack was that we saw??? if it was really a whale ......then are there any immense megalodon ancient whale like creatures, not extincted yet still exist in sri lanka..... it is all upto ya to find the answers for this..only if ya are interested in...i did my job telling ya what i witnessed on that day.....but all i know is that I KNOW WHAT I SAW,,,!!! take a good care of ya...god bless..keep up the good work ya do..!! cheers..!!
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ReplyDeleteThanks Asha, just call me Anup, thats fine. Myself and a few friends have a page on FB for Gangetic Dolphin Conservation. We try and help with issues there. One of my friends on the page is also doing his thesis on Indo Pacific Humpback Dolphins off East Coast of India. In recent discussions, he was was talking about recent Humpback whale deaths due to ship collisions in the area, in fact off the West Coast of Kerala, there has been 12 whale deaths due to this, in the past 6 months! Last year 3 Brydes whales stranded themselves after collisions and we know how rare they are. Shocking statistics but since many new ports are coming around the region, some mitigation needs to be done in order to prevent this kind of devastation (12 deaths in 6 months is devastating). Anyway, good to interact with you and look forward to learning much from your posts and activities. I'd like to take a quick break and go see the environment around Mirissa maybe later this month. Lets see. Thanks again.
ReplyDeletemiss asha de vos...hey there how have ya been....im amyuru chathuranga wadanambi...im a person who works as a marine navigator for a german shipping company.....so im quite interested in the scope ya are in to....i adore the diversity all around the sri lankan waters....as mariners we happen to see the beauty all around the world oceans in daily basis....what i knw is that sri lankan waters are the brith place for the largest blue whales that ever lived on planet earth.....i dnt have any evidence to prove ya that something i encounted around a year ago from this very date..!! once when we were navigating around 20 nautical mile away from dondra we saw some creature which was more than 50 meters long.it was just swimming around 10-20m to our vessel's starboard beam..i dnt have anything to prove ya about the credibility and the authenticity of what i have mentioned here but you have to believe what i say..i swear to god i saw that thing.....thank god i saw that documentary about blue whales in sri lanka ya had done for some over seas television network...so i wanted to tell this to ya ...so i decided to google out yo name and find out for any means of contact where i can find a chance to share my experience with......actually we were not quite sure of that creature we saw on that day..( as i can remember this happened some where between october to december last year 2010).. it was more like a whale actually....but whales dont grow upto 50 odd meters which is obvious......i mean thats huge.. ya knw it better than i do .....being a marine biologist i thought that this info i just shared with ya would worth smthing for ya...i love the marine world ,,, so i felt like ya are one of those passionate sri lankans who is desperate to find the genuine roots of these beautiful and innocent creatures.....only myself and one german captain who was in command our vessel saw this.....what i cant figure out is if the whale dont grow upto 50 odd meters...what the hack was that we saw??? if it was really a whale ......then are there any immense megalodon ancient whale like creatures, not extincted yet still exist in sri lanka..... it is all upto ya to find the answers for this..only if ya are interested in...i did my job telling ya what i witnessed on that day.....but all i know is that I KNOW WHAT I SAW,,,!!! take a good care of ya...god bless..keep up the good work ya do..!! cheers..!!
ReplyDeleteHi Amyuru - thanks for your message. I can't comment on what it is you saw seeing as i didn't see it ... but i never doubt sightings at sea until i have hard evidence because the sea holds many secrets! Please keep commenting and sending me any information on sightings you have! Thanks for the words of support and encouragement too - it helps me work harder for the cause :)
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