Jaffna Lagoon

Jaffna Lagoon is the great shallow body of water that almost separates the peninsula from the rest of Sri Lanka. It runs across roughly four hundred square kilometres at the join between the Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts, opens to the Palk Bay through a handful of narrow channels, and is rarely deeper than two or three metres. The shore is mudflat, seagrass, and mangrove, with palmyra rising behind.

The lagoon is one of the best wetland bird sites in Sri Lanka. Flamingos arrive in significant numbers between November and March, joined by ducks, gulls, terns, and several wader species. The mudflats around the southern and western edges hold the largest concentrations; first light, before the wind picks up, is the time to be there.

For the people of the peninsula, the lagoon is also a working landscape. Prawn fishermen launch from villages along the shore at dusk and work the shallow channels through the night, returning at dawn with their boats riding low in the water. Lagoon crab — sweet, large, and best eaten the day it is caught — is the speciality of the kitchens of Jaffna.

A morning by the lagoon is best taken slowly: a quiet walk along the southern shore, an hour with binoculars, a fish breakfast at one of the lagoon-side villages on the way back. Local boatmen at certain villages will take small parties out for an unhurried hour on the water if you ask through the villa.