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Dive into the deep
The wonders of our marine life come alive at the NARA Museum in Mattakkuliya
By Chandani Kirinde
Sri Lanka is blessed with unique marine life but not many of us get to experience first hand this wide variety of nature's bounty. So the next best thing would be to visit a marine museum where one can get a perspective of the country's marine life and be inspired to learn more about it and importantly, conserve it.

The National Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA) at Mattakkuliya houses a Marine Museum where a visitor can gather basic knowledge about the interesting varieties of fish, marine turtles and aquatic plants that inhabit the seas around the country. The Museum opened in 1985 and since then has become a place of interest for students as well as those drawn to marine science.

On display is an underwater view of the sea with several species of fish and other underwater forms of life. The fish on display have been built to actual sizes using fibreglass but with real fins to give them a natural look.

The colours of the fish are also matched to perfection to be realistic, Extension Officer at NARA Ananda Lal Liyanage said. Visitors can also see on display some of the old methods of fishing used by Sri Lankan fishermen and how they have evolved over the years as well as some of the equipment used in the past.

The most interesting exhibits are two whale skeletons – one of a blue whale measuring over 70 feet in length and a humpback whale of over 40 feet in length. They have been assembled and mounted for public display and catch the eye of visitors. Soon visitors will also get a chance to see another mounted whale skeleton as NARA officials hope to begin work on a Bryde's whale, which washed ashore at the Colombo port in November last year.

Conservation work on a whale skeleton begins with the animal that is washed ashore being transported to the relevant site and kept buried for a year, according to Dr. Anura Jayawardena, Research Officer at NARA. After a year, once the flesh has withered away, the site is dug up and the painstaking work of assembling the skeleton begins, he said.

The Bryde's whale skeleton, once assembled will be unique as it will be one of the rare instances when a complete skeleton without any damage has been mounted, Dr. Jayawardena said.

In addition to these exhibits, the museum has on display a wide variety of samples of fish and marine turtles found in Sri Lanka including those of the five varieties of turtles common to this part of the world as well as turtle shells and skeletal remains of sharks and dolphins. There is also a reference collection of corals of Sri Lanka but this is mainly for study purposes. Sri Lanka has over 200 species of corals but many are facing degeneration due to destructive methods such as dynamiting of the seas and dredging close to reefs.

Visitors can also look at the breeding sites maintained by NARA including one for ornamental fish, endemic fish as well as for quarantine fish brought from abroad and those that develop diseases.

The breeding of ornamental fish has been undertaken to educate local exporters on how to breed ornamental fish in an artificial environment as overfishing of these species in their natural habitats has led to a drop in their numbers, according to officials at NARA.

The Museum at NARA, Crow Island, Colombo 15, is open on weekdays but visitors are expected to call first on 2521000 to make an appointment.

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