Sri Lanka’s Protected, Endangered, and Threatened Mobile Marine Species
By Jamie Small, Hannah Lawson, Bethany Graves
Sri Lanka’s waters are home to an array of Protected, Endangered and Threatened (PET) mobile marine species including whales, dolphins, turtles, seabirds, sharks and rays. Each species performs ecologically important roles within the marine environment and provides a source of income to coastal communities via ecotourism. In today's blog post, you can find out how we have been working with Sri Lanka to effectively monitor and manage their PET marine species.
Protected, Endangered and Threatened (PET) species are those listed by the IUCN Red List as being at risk of extinction and/or are recognised as legally protected species in Sri Lanka due to their national importance. These include 29 species of marine mammals, many of which are residential in Sri Lankan waters including blue whales and dugongs, five of the seven species of turtle that use Sri Lankan beaches as nesting sites, over 105 species of shark and ray, and a range of seabirds. Many of these species perform ecologically important roles within the marine environment. As such, the presence and abundance of PET marine species are important indicators of marine ecosystem health. In addition to this, local coastal communities can benefit from the presence of PET species as important sources of income through sustainable ecotourism.
There is a need to increase awareness and address knowledge gaps related to the condition and distribution of these species in Sri Lanka, as well as to better understand the impact and nature of the threats to them. Through the Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP), JNCC has been working with Oceanswell, Sri Lanka’s first marine conservation research and education organisation; and the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the global body responsible for management of whaling and conservation of whales, to deliver coastal community education and awareness workshops; and a national monitoring programme for live, stranded and dead PET marine species.
Coastal community education and awareness workshops
Oceanswell led a series of community workshops to raise awareness of the importance of PET marine species in Sri Lanka including teaching coastal communities what species are found in their waters, how to identify them, what threats they face and how the community can contribute to monitoring through citizen science data collection. Learning was not one way though, with workshop participants providing Oceanswell with valuable local insights into their experiences with PET marine species, sightings and local threats. Some of these insights have not been scientifically recorded yet and emphasise the importance of local knowledge for supporting the conservation management of species and the two-way flow of information in such engagements.
Overall, two community, and four school workshops were held in Trincomalee, eastern Sri Lanka, and Negombo and Colombo, western Sri Lanka in February 2025. Workshops targeted fishing community areas and successfully engaged with over 470 participants.
Images copyright Oceanswell.
National monitoring programme for live, stranded and dead PET marine species
Sri Lanka currently does not have a standardised national monitoring programme for live, stranded and dead PET marine species. JNCC, through the OCPP, funded the IWC to provide a package of expert support to initiate a coordinated monitoring network for the response and collection of data for stranded PET marine species. Data collected from stranded animals can provide significant information regarding the health of individual animals, the species, and in turn, the health of the wider marine ecosystem. For example, samples can provide insights on marine pollution and implications on human health through the analysis of chemical contaminants.
In March and April 2025, IWC held a Sampling and Strandings Initiative workshop for Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) personnel, including vets and Wildlife Rangers, in Colombo. The two-day workshop, was supported by Oceanswell who provided background on PET species in Sri Lankan waters, the threats they face and also ran a marine mammal identification workshop. IWC led on teaching strandings response protocols and data collection methods as well as explaining how this sort of information can indicate wider ecosystem functioning. An inflatable dolphin and slice of marzipan, used to simulate whale blubber, helped to provide a practical element to the training and increase understanding of how and what data to collect during an incident.
Images copyright International Whaling Commission (IWC).
A second PET marine species necropsy workshop was held the following week in Kandy aimed at veterinarians and pathologists. Necropsies help to understand the causes of an animals’ death, with the data collected used to inform conservation strategies. Over two days IWC and a conservation veterinarian from the Veterinary School of University of Padova in Italy, provided training on safe and effective stranding response procedures, including analgesia and euthanasia; and protocols for conducting necropsies, collecting and handling biological samples, and producing detailed necropsy reports. Participants were able to put their training into practice through undertaking necropsies for four sea turtles.
(Images copyright International Whaling Commission (IWC)).
These workshops were the first of their kind held by the IWC in Asia. Long-term teaching materials including videos on how to undertake necropsies for marine mammals will be provided to Sri Lanka to support ongoing training initiatives and capacity sharing. The OCPP also provided support through the procurement of vital strandings and necropsy veterinary equipment to enable the DWC to undertake necropsies and data collection for PET marine species into the future.
By improving knowledge and understanding of Sri Lanka’s PET marine species, and technical expertise in data collection, effective conservation and management measures can be developed, with benefits for the target species, local coastal communities and the wider marine environment.
The OCPP is delivered by Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), JNCC and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) on behalf of Defra. The programme is funded through official development assistance (ODA) as part of the UK’s £500 million Blue Planet Fund. Through the OCPP, the UK government partners with ODA-eligible countries to deliver tangible and positive impacts on the livelihoods of coastal communities that depend on healthy marine ecosystems. For more information about the OCPP Sri Lanka partnership visit our OCPP Sri Lanka webpage.