Mirissa and Weligama

Ask for the dive center's site-level briefing, actual operating permissions, instructor/divemaster credentials, maximum working group, buoy and flag, dive-computer policy, maintained gas fills, rescue equipment, surface oxygen, communications, DCI plan and boat return route. SLTDA guidance lists a maximum of five guided divers per instructor or divemaster and prohibits recreational dives deeper than 30 m; confirm the current applicable regulation before any deeper itinerary. An offshore reef's published seabed maximum is not a planned depth. Avoid boat channels, overhead penetration, unsupervised freediving and touching coral or animals. DAN guidance suggests at least 12 hours after a single no-decompression dive and 18 hours after multiple dives/day or multiple days before flying, with longer intervals for decompression dives; a conservative 24-hour buffer provides added margin. Symptoms of decompression illness require immediate medical evaluation, not a planned flight.

Call 1990 Suwa Seriya for an ambulance; it provides island-wide free emergency transport. The nearby area has District General Hospital Matara and the wider Southern Province has Karapitiya Teaching Hospital in Galle, but no verified on-site recompression chamber, guaranteed treatment slot or door-to-door DCI transfer was established. Ask the actual center for its chamber referral, oxygen stock, airway/first aid capability, emergency transport and insurance confirmation. The UK travel health advice warns specialist care can require transfer to larger centers and that evacuation may be expensive.

Keep whale watching on permitted boats. The SLTDA whale guideline calls for a 100 m no-approach zone, no more than three vessels within 300 m, life jackets and no whale/dolphin swimming or diving. One local operator voluntarily advertises a wider separation and no-swim policy; self-reporting is not proof of license. In snorkeling and scuba, maintain neutral buoyancy, do not stand on reef, collect shells/artifacts, chase turtles, touch animals or feed wildlife; SLTDA scuba guidance also addresses protected site permissions and cultural-heritage protection. Avoid single-use plastics where practical and respect fishing work and local access.