Sri Lanka: Diving Paradise or Disappointment

by Stuart Wilson, 2003

"Stop the boat !...stop the boat !" went up the cry from our skipper Eddy. He scrambled to the bow of the boat trying to get a better look at the shape in the water. "A manta or a whale shark" he proclaimed with confidence. A dark shape was showing in the water not more than 15m away. Eddy grabbed his fins, mask and snorkel and quick as a blink was in the water swimming towards the shape. We all waited in anticipation as he appeared a few minutes later. "No, no, its only a shoal of small fish" he said, with disappointment in his voice.

Captain Edgar Ruprect (yes really) or 'Eddy' to his customers had just finished taking me on my first dive in Sri Lanka. We_had been on the way back to the local fishing village when he spotted the shape. Sadly it wasn't the highlight of a diving lifetime. However, I had just seen more species of fish on one dive than I had ever seen before in 4 years of diving ! What's more, I knew only a couple of their names; the rest were all first encounters.

My first dive was on a boulder reef about 2 miles offshore called Prinz Heinrick Patch. 20m deep with a dive time of 54mins. I found out later that I had seen butterfly fish, sweetlips, trigger fish, puffer fish, copious amounts of smaller bright fluorescing blue fish and two large moray eels, one with a very photogenic black body with a golden yellow honeycombing pattern. I also saw some nice corals, but they were not prolific. Later, I learnt about some of the reasons why.

Before the dive I had been unsure of what to expect. I had never dived in the Indian Ocean before and had heard mixed reports on diving in Sri Lanka. But with a holiday planned with Caroline, my girlfriend, I thought I ought to check out the diving available. This was most certainly not a diving holiday but a holiday with some diving. However as I had 3 weeks in the country I had plenty of time to organise a few dives. In the end I decided to have just 3 days, where Caroline would have to fend for herself whilst I went diving.

My dive guide and dive centre owner Eddy, was a short fat German who owns 'Bavarian Divers' - a PADI dive school. He’s proud of his Bavarian roots, displaying the Bavarian flag alongside the Sri Lankan flag in front of his shop.
Every day seemed to follow a similar weather pattern. The weather started calm with light breezes, then as the day wore on the wind picked up and the sea swell grew. The spot we were diving from is called Weligama, a local fishing village perched near the bottom of the south coast of Sri Lanka.

The Indian Ocean spreads southwards, a vast expanse that does not reach dry land again till you get to Antarctica ! With that entire ocean on your doorstep the rollers can get very big and the sea is nothing like the Channel or the Med. This meant that Eddy's small fibreglass hulled boat could only comfortably cope with a morning dive. Plus, I wasn't keen to suffer too much - I was on holiday after all !

The next dive was on Yala Rock. The structure of this site is very different. It resembles a huge pile of boulders, each typically 20m across stacked higgledy piggledy. The depth ranges from 20m at the base to 4m at the top. I saw many more corals here, but not quite so many fish, plus some stunning nudibrachs, slowly making their way across the boulder faces. We found a small fishing net caught in one of the rocks and carefully pulled it off.

The last dive was just south of Prinz Heinrick Patch. Eddy Said he had found an old anchor there before and he was keen to try to relocate it and maybe part of the wreck it might belong to. I was happy to see what we could find so we dropped down onto the seabed at 28m and we worked our way around in a square search pattern. Sadly no anchor and no sign of a wreck, but I was happy just to be in the water. It was the first time I had been somewhere with the water temperature IDENTICAL to the air temperature - around 28°C. The viz had stayed fairly constant over all the dives at around 15m, not fantastic, but still enjoyable. Each dive had cost me U$25 with the hire of all kit and air included.

I found out later that Sri Lanka still suffers from fishermen who use dynamite to catch fish. This also kills the coral. The net I saw on the second dive showed that fishing was very active. I also saw flakes of coral littered near the top of Yala Rock, which Eddy told me was the result of the dynamite shock waves simply blasting the coral off the rock. This is a shame because the essential ingredients of first class diving would all be there if only the local communities saw the value in using a more environmentally friendly approach.

The average Sri Lankan fisherman has a hard life and cares little of the plight of the coral. It's literally back breaking work (the catamarans they haul up and down the beach each day, mean the working limit of the men is little beyond 40yrs old due to back problems).

The Maldives are not so far away and I can only wonder at how good the diving could be, given the right conditions. So in my view Sri Lanka is certainly not a diving paradise but neither is it a disaster. I would not recommend it as a destination for a pure diving holiday, but for the casual diver it has some worthy attractions. If the ceasefire with the Tamil Tigers continues then perhaps the North Eastern coast may hold some future promise. All the locals I spoke to said that Trincomalee, on the East coast, has the best diving in Sri Lanka. However the sports diving industry there is virtually non-existent, so you would have to organise everything yourself !

The rest of the country is great with some fantastic sights, smells and tastes. Easily enough to make up for any shortcomings on the diving front.

Billericay Sub Aqua Club