Hikkaduwa Coral Sanctuary

Sri Lanka's first marine protected area — declared a sanctuary in 1979 and a marine national park in 2002 — fringing the beach town of Hikkaduwa on the southwest coast. The coral gardens sit in 3-12 m of warm, calm water 100-300 m offshore: a shallow fringing reef of Acropora tables, Montipora, and brain corals recovering from the 1998 bleaching and 2004 tsunami. Green and hawksbill turtles graze the heads daily and are reliably approachable, while parrotfish, surgeonfish, snappers, butterflyfish, Moorish idols, and moray eels work the coral, with the odd blacktip reef shark on the seaward edge. Shallow depth, easy shore and short boat access, and minimal current make it one of the island's best beginner and training reefs, busiest with glass bottom boats in the November-April dry season.