The Presence of Southern Right Whales off Eastern Tierra del Fuego, 1987-2011

GOODALL , R.N.P.; BENEGAS LUIS; DELLABIANCA NATALIA; RICCIALDELLI LUCIANA; PIMPER LIDA

Buenos Aires

Workshop; IWC Southern Right Whale Assessment Workshop; 2014

IWC

The southern right whale Eubalaena australis is well known off northern Patagonia, where many individualsreturn each year from June to December to the calving grounds near Península Valdés.  Interest in this species,which swims very near the coast and puts on an elaborate show during mating, is so high in Argentina that theValdés area is one of the country’s major tourist attractions; it was designated one of the world’s marine reservesand the southern right whale has been declared a Living National Monument. Southern right whales must pass Tierra del Fuego on their journeys to and from their southern cold-water summer feeding grounds. Little has been known of their presence in this area. In recent years they have been seen to congregate near unmanned natural gas platforms off the Río Cullen in northernmost Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, were helicopter pilots servicing the platforms see them each year. One whale died after swimming behind a ship attending the platforms. Southern right whales occasionally enter the Beagle Channel. Strandings are rare; only two have occurred, on the north coast, in the last 13 years.