For a while, people were uncertain about whether the fish really existed. In a 2017 Trip Advisor review of singing fish tours organised by a local hotel, the tourist writes, “The Sound was there and we listened by placing the ear-end of the Oar … in water. And in one spot we heard it even without listening through the oars. It was an amazing experience.” The hotel’s owner responds: “Even though a lot of people know Batticaloa as the ‘Land of the Singing Fish’ most of them including locals think it is a legend and no truth to it. I heard it first when I was around 12 almost 30 years ago and after the long disruption due to the civil war people forgot about it and it slipped into distant memory.”