Hikkaduwa in Sri Lanka

Hikkaduwa is a small town on the south coast of Sri Lanka located in the Southern Province, about 17 km (11 mi) north-west of Galle and 98 km (61 mi) south of Colombo.Hikkaduwa Sri Lanka is a beach city in Southwest part of the country, about two hours south of Colombo. It’s famous for beach resorts, giant sea turtles, scuba diving, moonstone mining, and being ground zero for the devastating 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Every year, more tourists come to Hikkaduwa and the industry is thriving. There is plenty to do in Hikkaduwa. A lot of these activities are good, but be you should prepare yourself. Some Hikkaduwa attractions are meh and some are outright ugly. That’s why we bring you Hikkaduwa Sri Lanka – the good, the meh, and the ugly

EXPLORING HIKKADUWA CORAL REEFS

Sri Lanka is famous for its coral reefs and the Hikkaduwa Coral Reef is located just outside the Coral Sands Hotel. You can bring a mask and snorkel from home or rent gear for cheap on the beach. Either way, we saw more tropical fishes in knee-deep water on the reef then we saw during our scuba diving trip. This is such an cheap and easy activity anybody who can swim owes  it to themselves to check it out if they’re ever in Hikkaduwa.

SCUBA DIVING IN HIKKADUWA

The reefs in Hikkaduwa claimed several ships and reasonable diving companies service local dive sites. We learned our lesson in Koh Tao and spent the little bit of extra money for Dive for You, which is on the grounds of the Hikka Tranz. They offered great equipment and excellent customer service.

The diving was good and definitely catered to experienced divers, unlike the turn and burn school we saw in Thailand. The diving was decent, but it wasn’t excellent. The vis was about 50’ and the sea life was present, but not abundant. In fact, a fishing boat set anchor at our dive site after we left. We did two wreck dives with reasonable hull integrity. My favorite part was clearly seeing the mast and rigging of an old sailing ship.

Flora and fauna

Foliaceous Montipora species dominate the coral reef. Encrusting and branching species are also present. Faviidae and Poritidae corals are contained in the inshore areas of the reef in massive colonies. Staghorn, elkhorn, cabbage, brain, table and star corals are all present in the reef.Corals of 60 species belonging to 31 genera are recorded from the reef. The reef also recorded over 170 species of reef fish belonging to 76 genera.

Sesagras and marine algae belonging to genera Halimeda and Caulerpa are common in the seabed depth ranging from 5–10 m. Seagrasses provide habitat to dugongs and sea turtles. Some species of prawns feed on the seagrass. Eight species of ornamental fishes also inhabit the reef, along with many vertebrates and invertebrates including crabs, prawns, shrimps, oysters and sea worms. Porites desilveri is an endemic coral species of Sri Lanka. Chlorurus rhakoura and Pomacentrus proteus are two reef fish species confined to Sri Lanka. Blacktip reef shark are found along the outer slope of the reef. Three sea turtles which have been categorized threatened visit the coral reef: the hawksbill turtle, green turtle, ad olive ridley