Sperm Whale

Photo: azure27014 · CC BY-NC

Sperm whales pass through the deep water off Batticaloa between December and April, drawn by the productive submarine canyon system that drops sharply east of the Hermes site and sustains the deep-water squid on which sperm whales prey. Surface encounters are reported by liveaboard operators positioning over the wreck on flat-calm winter mornings, with whales at times logging at the surface within a few hundred metres of the dive boat. This is an unscripted, never guaranteed encounter — but its possibility makes the HMS Hermes one of the most extraordinary dive sites in all of Asia.