Hikkaduwa National Park

The park office is situated at Hikkaduwa on Colombo- Galle road.

The reef at Hikkaduwa extends about 130m seawards before dropping sharply to soft substrate at 7-10m. A few rocky islets are located in the near shore area and the shoreline protection system is formed by coastal sandstone and submarine coral reefs. The area forms the Wet Zone receiving an average annual rainfall over 2000mm. The south west monsoon period is severe on the coast and average over 280mm of rainfall during the months of mid April to mid June and the northeast monsoon period from mid September through November averaging about 225mm of rain per month. Very strong winds blow during the southwest monsoon.

Inshore reefs feature a narrow band of sea grass before a Halimeda zone. On seaward slopes.

The most interesting fauna are found in the marine ecosystem of the coral reefs. These include the non reef fish ornamental and rare reef fish, molluscans species and diverse live coralline species. Sixty coral species representing 31 genera are found. A total of 113 species of fish has been recorded. This park is home for eight butterfly fish species too.