Vizag To Receive New Tourism Attractions This Season

Nimisha Tiwari Hota- Visakhapatnam

Every season brings in new tourism packages but this time around, Visakhapatnam, better known as Vizag, is designing a unique tourism kit to offer its tourists. The Visakha Water Sports Club is currently chalking out plans to take enthusiasts into the sea and show the feats of whales and dolphins which will make their way to the Vizag coastline this season.

The kit called ’nature watching’ is all set to take off in a short time span. The westerly cold-water currents from Antartica, has given rise to unfavourable conditions for these ocean mammals (dolphins and whales), which has result in them migrating away from the islands of Andamans towards the Visakhapatnam coastline. The Vizag authorities have chash in on this change and aim to convert this phenomenon into a spectacle for tourists who visit Visakhapatnam during the period.

NAV Prasad Reddy, secretary of Visakha Water Sports Club is undertaking thorough research on these mammals. According to Reddy, “The groups of fish which will migrate towards Visakhapatnam coastline are harmless. They are primarily fish eaters. A man-eating white shark species found in the waters of Andamans, will not migrate.”

The common grey, bottle nosed dolphin, spinner dolphin or oceanic dolphin, largest dolphin called the pilot whale, hump-backed whale, pigmy whale and this killer whale known as ’giant clown of the sea’ are a few species which are expected to migrate here. The most exciting part Prasad added, will be to watch sperm whales. The speciality of these sperm whales is that one-third of its body size is its brain. When it goes deep into the sea, spermaceti oil is released. This oil reacts with saline seawater and emits a peculiar green light, which aids the whale to hunt its predators. The oil forms into a jelly after sometime and is of immense export value.

The monsoons are expected to cross over the islands of Andamans by the latter half of the month of May, explained J V M Naidu, director of Cyclone Warning Centre. This will result in more and more of these tourism-attracting sea species to move towards the Vizag coastline, which will in turn boost to the tourism potential of this district.