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Introduction
Additional affiliations
November 2013 - December 2015
Publications
Publications (52)
In May 2021, the M/V X-Press Pearl ship fire disaster led to the largest maritime spill of resin pellets (nurdles) and burnt plastic (pyroplastic). Field samples collected from beaches in Sri Lanka nearest to the ship comprised nurdles and pieces of pyroplastic. Three years later, the toxicity of the spilled material remains unresolved. To begin un...
In May 2021, the M/V X-Press Pearl ship fire disaster led to the largest maritime spill of resin pellets (nurdles) and burnt plastic (pyroplastic). Field samples collected from beaches in Sri Lanka nearest to the ship comprised nurdles and pieces of pyroplastic. Three years later, the toxicity of the spilled material remains unresolved. To begin un...
The global scientific community is currently going through a self-reckoning in which it is questioning and reexamining its existing practices, many of which are based on colonial and neo-colonial perceptions. This is particularly acute for the ocean research community, where unequal and unbalanced international collaborations have been rife. Conseq...
Global socio-ecological shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can threaten progress in protecting vulnerable marine environments by altering behaviour of resource users 1 . When government priorities shift from environmental protection towards safeguarding human populations, control of illegal activity in protected areas can alter. Resulting incre...
In May 2021, the M/V X-Press Pearl container ship burned for 2 weeks, leading to the largest maritime spill of resin pellets (nurdles). The disaster was exacerbated by the leakage of other cargo and the ship’s underway fuel. This disaster affords the unique opportunity to study a time-stamped, geolocated release of plastic under real-world conditio...
Many species are restricted to a marginal or suboptimal fraction of their historical range due to anthropogenic impacts, making it hard to interpret their ecological preferences from modern‐day data alone. However, inferring past ecological states is limited by the availability of robust data and biases in historical archives, posing a challenge fo...
tStrengthening participation of Global South researchers in tropical ecology and conservation is a target ofour scientific community, but strategies for fostering increased engagement are mostly directed at GlobalNorth institutions and researchers. Whereas such approaches are crucial, there are unique challenges toaddressing diversity, equity and i...
Sri Lanka, located in the northern Indian Ocean with the Arabian Sea on its western side and the Bay of Bengal on its eastern side and experiences biannually reversing monsoon winds. This brief overview explored the dynamics of the surface circulation and coastal upwelling in the waters around Sri Lanka, particularly along the southern coast, using...
A minuscule fraction of the deep sea has been scientifically explored and characterized due to several constraints, including expense, inefficiency, exclusion, and the resulting inequitable access to tools and resources around the world. To meet the demand for understanding the largest biosphere on our planet, we must accelerate the pace and broade...
In late May 2021, the M/V X-Press Pearl container ship caught fire while anchored 18 km off the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka and spilled upward of 70 billion pieces of plastic or "nurdles" (∼1680 tons), littering the country's coastline. Exposure to combustion, heat, chemicals, and petroleum products led to an apparent continuum of changes from no o...
The Arabian Sea Whale Network (ASWN) is an informal collaboration of researchers and conservation
bodies interested in the conservation of whale populations throughout the Northern Indian Ocean
In the central Indian Ocean, humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae) are rare. Records from southern India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and the Chagos Archipelago (n = 68) were compiled and show a bimodal pattern of seasonal occurrence. Those occurring during the northern winter (December to March) are known from other studies to belong to the Arabian Se...
An unusual sighting of a juvenile southern elephant seal ( Mirounga leonina ), outside its typical range, was recorded off the southern coast of Sri Lanka between 20th November and 20th December 2019. The individual, a male as confirmed by the presence of a prepuce, underwent a catastrophic moult during this 1 month period, following which no furth...
In May 2021, the M/V X-Press Pearl cargo ship caught fire 18 km off the west coast of Sri Lanka and spilled ∼1680 tons of spherical pieces of plastic or “nurdles” (∼5 mm; white in color). Nurdles are the preproduction plastic used to manufacture a wide range of end products. Exposure to combustion, heat, and chemicals led to agglomeration, fragment...
The study of cetacean strandings was globally recognised as a priority topic at the 2019 World Marine Mammal Conference, in recognition of its importance for understanding the threats to cetacean communities and, more broadly, the threats to ecosystem and human health. Rising multifaceted anthropogenic and environmental threats across the globe, as...
Substantial efforts and investments are being made to increase the scale and improve the effectiveness of marine conservation globally. Though it is mandated by international law and central to conservation policy, less attention has been given to how to operationalize social equity in and through the pursuit of marine conservation. In this article...
Area coverage of large-scale marine protected areas (MPAs) (LSMPAs, > 100,000 km²) is rapidly increasing globally. Their effectiveness largely depends on successful detection and management of non-compliance. However, for LSMPAs this can be difficult due to their large size, often remote locations and a lack of understanding of the social drivers o...
During the May 2019-May 2020 period, the Arabian Sea Whale Network (ASWN) has maintained communication between members and with external organisations through a website and an email group. Many ASWN members helped to identify Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) by writing proposals and participating in the IMMA workshop held in Oman in March 2019...
Sri Lanka’s location, historic and geologic isolation from the continental landmass, topography and climate act to shape its biogeography and biodiversity, including conferring a remarkably high level of endemism, given its close proximity to the mainland.
The island hosts several ‘point endemic1 species and even monotypic endemic genera. However t...
Blue whales are little studied, face significant anthropogenic threats and within the Northern Indian Ocean, have a restricted range, making them an archetype for conservation needs of megafauna around the world. We studied feeding behavior of blue whales using dietary DNA metabarcoding of fecal samples. While globally blue whale populations feed p...
An unusually coloured, small baleen whale was documented off the southern coast of Sri Lanka in February 2017
during routine field surveys. Based on five distinct morphological characteristics including jaw asymmetry, presence of a prominent central rostral ridge, blaze on right side, asymmetrical chevron on left and right sides and a strongly falc...
Aim
Human activities are creating conservation challenges for cetaceans. Spatially explicit risk assessments can be used to address these challenges, but require species distribution data, which are limited for many cetacean species. This study explores methods to overcome this limitation. Blue whales ( Balaenoptera musculus ) are used as a case st...
Blue whales in the Northern Indian Ocean are a morphologically and acoustically distinct population restricted to these waters. Off Sri Lanka a portion of the population concentrates near shore where they are exposed to a range of anthropogenic threats. We review available data to determine anthropogenic threats/stressors faced by this population a...
Two pygmy blue whales were struck and killed in Sri Lankan waters within a 12-day period in early 2012. The first was found draped on the bow of a container ship in Colombo Harbour on 20 March 2012 and following its disposal 25 km offshore, washed up on a beach 10 km south two days later. The second whale was found floating dead at sea by one of us...
Sri Lanka occupies a unique location within the equatorial belt in the northern Indian Ocean and experiences bi-annually reversing monsoon winds. This allows for the island to interact with the reversing monsoon currents, leading to the island mass effect and enhanced primary production. We present elements of the dynamics of the surface circulatio...
Sri Lanka occupies a unique location within the equatorial belt in the
northern Indian Ocean, with the Arabian Sea on its western side and the Bay
of Bengal on its eastern side, and experiences bi-annually reversing monsoon
winds. Aggregations of blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) have been
observed along the southern coast of Sri Lanka during the...
Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) movements are often driven by the availability of their prey in space and time. While globally blue whale populations undertake long-range migrations between feeding and breeding grounds, those in the northern Indian Ocean remain in low latitude waters throughout the year with the implication that the productivity...
Surfacing behaviour and dive characteristics were quantified from focal follows of individual blue whales between January–March 2012 and 2013. During this period individual whales were followed from small boats to observe their surfacing patterns and breathing behaviour. Data on time at first surface, length of surface interval, number of blows, fi...
Sri Lanka occupies a unique location within the equatorial belt in the
northern Indian Ocean with the Arabian Sea on its western side and the
Bay of Bengal on its eastern side. The region is characterised by
bi-annually reversing monsoon winds resulting from seasonal differential
heating and cooling of the continental land mass and the ocean. This...
The Indian Ocean Sanctuary was established in 1979 in an effort to allow exploited stocks of whales to recover from Passed away in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami during fieldwork in Thailand. to establish comprehensive management and conservation measures for species within these waters. The current study took place in the offshore waters of Sri Lan...
In the Northern Indian Ocean, blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) are known to aggregate along the northeast and southern coasts of Sri Lanka, but the reasons for these aggregations are poorly understood. The recently developed whale-watching industry off the coast of Mirissa, southern Sri Lanka, targets this species during the northeast monsoon wi...
Despite the popularity of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a management tool, increasing evidence shows that many fail to achieve conservation objectives. Although several MPAs exist in Sri Lanka, most are not managed, and resource extraction and habitat degradation continue unabated. At present, the declaration and management of MPAs is carried ou...
Fish orient by using a memorized map of their surroundings and, as they live in aquatic environments, this map must be three dimensional. Studies have shown that fish are able to encode horizontal information; however, we have little information about the cues that are learnt and remembered in the vertical axis. We used the blind Mexican cave fish,...
Questions
Question (1)
I am looking for a guide that can help my students identify squid beaks that we have collected around Sri Lanka. Any suggestions or people I should speak to would be more than welcome!
Thanks