Anoukchika D. Ilangakoon

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is one of the most common cetaceans in the waters around Sri Lanka and in a worldwide context one of the highest low-latitude sighting rates for this species has been recorded in these waters. As genetic analyses, acoustic studies and even long-term sighting surveys for blue whales in these waters are limited,...

Aim: The Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) is an endangered cetacean found throughout Southeast Asia. The main threat to this species is human encroachment, led by entanglement in fishing gear. Information on this data-poor species' ecology and habitat use is needed to effectively inform spatial management. Location: We investigated the...

Pelagic gillnet (driftnet) fisheries account for some 34% of Indian Ocean tuna catches. We combined published results from 10 bycatch sampling programmes (1981-2016) in Australia, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan to estimate bycatch rates for cetaceans across all Indian Ocean tuna gillnet fisheries. Estimated cetacean bycatch peaked at almost 100000 i...

A visual survey of cetaceans was carried out during a voyage from Singapore to Sri Lanka, through the Straits of Malacca, Andaman Sea and across the Bay of Bengal in the northern Indian Ocean in November/December 2012. Forty sightings of 11 cetacean species were recorded in 19 days of observation. Two mixed-species associations of interest were rec...

Sri Lanka has high avifaunal diversity but pelagic seabirds are the least studied group due to the constraints of conducting dedicated surveys at sea. Most early seabird records were from sightings at coastal viewpoints and the occasional stranding but, in the last few decades, some data have been collected opportunistically during boat-based cetac...

Effective conservation of coastal marine mammals is largely dependent on reliable knowledge of their abundance, as well as the ecological and human factors driving their distribution. In developing countries, lack of resources and capacity frequently impedes research needed to estimate abundance and to determine the ecological requirements of coast...

The Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) is found in Southeast Asia in nearshore coastal, estua-rine habitats, in three freshwater riverine habitats of the Mahakam, Mekong, and Ayeyarwady Rivers, and in brackish water lakes in Chilika, India, and Songkhla, Thailand (Reeves et al., 2008). Throughout its range, the Irrawaddy dolphin has been stu...

Sri Lanka is a developing island nation in the northern Indian Ocean. Travellers and historians have documented whales in the waters around the island as far back as the 14 th century but the first scientific records of live cetaceans from vessel-based research observations were documented only in the early 1980s. Sri Lanka's waters have high cetac...

Sri Lanka is a developing island nation in the northern Indian Ocean. Travellers and historians have documented whales in the waters around the island as far back as the 14 th century but the first scientific records of live cetaceans from vessel-based research observations were documented only in the early 1980s. Sri Lanka's waters have high cetac...

The waters off Sri Lanka, an island in the northern Indian Ocean, are an important habitat for blue whales, a species listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The subspecies status, genetic affinities and movement patterns of this northern Indian Ocean population of blue whales is not yet clearly understood but off Sri Lanka...

Three killer whale (Orcinus orca) sightings were recorded during the twelve month period from March 2008 to February 2009 in the northern Indian Ocean waters around Sri Lanka. This included the first sighting of this species during a dedicated cetacean survey. In the past three decades, several dedicated cetacean surveys have revealed high species...

The Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary lies off the north-west coast of Sri Lanka. In the first dedicated cetacean survey of this area, monthly boat-based surveys were carried out over 1 year (April 2004 to March 2005) both within the Sanctuary and seawards in deeper offshore waters. The survey established that the Sanctuary has year-round abundance of ceta...

The Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary, off northwestern Sri Lanka, and its adjacent waters were suspected to be an important Cetacean habitat, but a dedicated survey had never been undertaken. Therefore, a one-year survey was carried out from April 2004 to May 2005 to fill the vacuum of knowledge on Cetacean species of the area, and to gather baseline data...

Blue whale locations in the Southern Hemisphere and northern Indian Ocean were obtained from catches (303 239), sightings (4383 records of ≥8058 whales), strandings (103), Discovery marks (2191) and recoveries (95), and acoustic recordings. Sighting surveys included 7 480 450 km of effort plus 14 676 days with unmeasured effort. Groups usually cons...

The dugong (Dugong dugon) is the only extant species of the family Dugongidae in the order Sirenia. This herbivorous marine mammal inhabits the waters of some 37 countries in the Indo-Pacific region but is presently listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as being vulnerable to extinction throughout its range. Although the presence of the...

The Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary (BRMS) off North Western Sri Lanka and adjacent waters were suspected to be important cetacean habitat but a dedicated survey had never been undertaken in this area. This survey was done over a period of one year in 2004/2005 to fill the knowledge gaps on cetacean occurrence and distribution in the area and gather base...

Records of large whale strandings in Sri Lanka since 1889 are scattered throughout the available literature but have never been subject to any analyses. Stranding records of the Cetacean families Balaenopteridae and Physeteridae, occurring between 1889 and 2004 are compiled here into a single comprehensive list and examined in terms of species comp...

Interview surveys (131 interviews in 44 villages) were carried out in 2004 to assess the present status of the dugong population inhabiting the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka. The area has been an important dugong habitat in the past but there is little recent data. The Gulf is highly productive and intensively fished by both countries...

This is the first comprehensive guide to the identification of whales, dolphins and porpoises (Order Cetacea) inhabiting the Indian Ocean waters around the island of Sri Lanka. The book gives a general description of cetaceans including their evolutionary history, unique natural history characteristics and behavioural traits followed by a detailed...

Sri Lanka, in the northern Indian Ocean island, has a relatively narrow continental shelf and an abundance of cetacean fauna in her waters. A few vessel surveys have produced data on cetacean occurrence off the east and west coast but no similar data exists for the south. To fill this data gap vessel-based transects were carried out in 2008/2009 of...

The symposium took place in Bangkok, Thailand on March 5 and 6, 2009. Dugong is known as Ye wet (= Water pig) and Ye thu ma (= Mermaid) in Myanmar. Man Aung Island, about 55 miles in circumference, is situated at 18°47.898'N and 93°98.472'E in the Rakhine Coast of western Myanmar. It was known as Cheduba Island as an English name in the past. Dugon...

February 23-25, 2010, Phuket, Thailand Sri Lanka is a northern Indian Ocean island where the dugong (Dugong dugon) was once common in the Gulf of Mannar off the northwestern coast. While this population has declined due to excessive hunting and accidental bycatch, its recent status was unknown, due to a dearth of studies during the past three decad...