Watching of Whales in Peninsula Valdés. There are between 600 and 700 whales. They offer an incredible show. The Southern Franca Whale, visits Peninsula Valdes every year, to mate and to give birth to their breedings.

Península Valdés ( http://www.peninsulavaldes.com) it is the place that the southern Franca Whales choose every year for their ritual of mating. Amid the silence of the place, and the constant noise of the wind and the sea, they usually make their sudden appearance. They are the biggest cetaceous in these latitudes. You have to wait patiently and suddenly you will hear a snort. A shade appears on the water and there is a vapor cloud. At once it disappears, and later it appears again, and so on many times a day. The first watching begins about 10:00 o'clock in the morning, if the weather conditions are the proper ones and the "Prefecture" authorizes it. It is a good moment to enjoy the landscape, before the watching; the sea water is golden and silvery due to the fact that the sun is rising on the horizon.

The tourist is anxious to see the whales, the eyes become binoculars trying to discover a whale that moves its fin. When you are on board going towards the adventure, the trip from the coast to the open sea has no time, the wait doesn't exist, it may appear in any moment. Suddenly it appears, you can watch its head and then it dives again, leaving a trail of waves and gulls behind it. Sometimes they don't jump, they only swim quietly. It is believed that their jumps are connected with the communication among them. If a mom swims next to her breeding, she is like all moms: over protector. The calves are curious and they approach the crafts "to greet" with their fins. That is why the mom interferes between the craft and the boat to protect it.

The Main Character

The Southern Franca Whale, that visits every year the Valdés Peninsula Coasts, is one of the 11 existing species at the moment. They are mammals adapted to the aquatic life, the same as dolphins, killer-whales, wolves and marine elephants. They belong to the order of the cetaceous with beards, instead of teeth in the mouth. Its name comes from the Greek, and translated it means "true whale of the south". Why Franca? The answer can be found in the anecdotes of the old whale hunters. This species swims slower than others, it inhabits, most of the year in coastal areas and the jet of vapor that they expel, when they breath, can be seen to several kilometers distance.

We know a lot about its physical characteristics on the other hand we know little about its aquatic life. At the moment, there are projects to carry out a satellital pursuit to determine its behavior. It has a robust body, it is generally black, with some white spots on the abdomen. On the average, the adults end up weighing up to 50 tons (the weight of 13 African elephants or of 715 men) The female are bigger than the males. Its length is about 12 or 16 meters. The calves, when they are born, weigh about 3 tons and they measure between 4,6 and 5,5 meters length. Though they have lung breathing they don't need to take the head totally out of water. Their nasal nostrils, are in the head superior area. The air is expired in jet form and it forms a "V" that reaches 5 meters height.

Their loving life is an entire rite. On the contrary to other animal species where the male fights to be able to mate a female, in this case the female chooses and decides with which of them she will mate. It is said that the whale carries out a "promiscuous mating" because 4 or 5 males surround the female while she moves the fins until she decides. The gestation lasts one year and they give birth to a calf each three years. Their sexual maturation starts from 6 or 7 years old, and they live about 60 years. The nursing, the same as their mating is particularly attractive. In spite of being mammals they don't have suckles, their place is occupied by a sensible area that the calf stimulates and from where the mother expels a milk jet. Only the mating and nursing are carried out along the Patagonian coasts. Where do they go the rest of the year? It is a mystery.

The Whales' Watching

Departing From Puerto Madryn ( http://www.webmadryn.com.ar) you arrives at Puerto Pirámides along the Provincial Route nº 2, after traveling about 100 Km. In whale's season it is a true delight to the eyes to make a first tract along the Provincial Route nº 4 (rubble) on one side you can see the Atlantic Ocean, on the other the Patagonian steppe. From here you can watch the first whales in the El Doradillo and Las Canteras beaches, they are about 20 meters from the coast and you can almost feel them. After traveling about 77Km you arrive at Carlos Ameghino Integral, Faunistical Reservation of Peninsula Valdes. The de los Pájaros Island is placed to 5 Km from there, it is an important post of marine avifauna. To see it, it is necessary to use the viewfinders installed there, because the access to the tourists is forbidden, as it is a natural reservation since 1967.
( http://www.avistel.madryn.com/avistel.htm).

About 25 kilometers far ahead, after traveling along a Patagonian steppe route you arrive at a rural village. The whales' watching is regulated by laws that settle down that it can only be organized and traded by those who are properly authorized by the Tourism Secretary. There are 6 companies that offer these services in Puerto Pirámide. The season begins in June and it comes to an end in December, when the whales depart.

Some companies authorized to carry out whale's watching are
http://www.pekesosa.com.ar
http://www.titobottazzi.com.ar

Traveling along the Peninsula
http://www.satlink.com/usuarios/f/fpnat/index.htm
http://madryn.gov.ar/fauna/fauna.htm

The Valdés Peninsula is not only full of whales, though they are its main attractiveness. There are also a lot of marine wolves of a single hair. They can be found along the whole Peninsula, but mainly in the "Reserva Faunística de Punta Pirámide", from November to March when about 1500 animals gather there to reproduce themselves. The males differ from the females because they have a mane around their neck. Between April and November you can see them in other posts. The most important one is the "Lobería de Punta Loma" placed to 17 Km from Madryn Port.

The Magellan Penguin is another of the species of the Patagonian fauna perhaps the second important one. To watch them it is necessary to travel 110 Km from Trelew to the "Reserva Natural Punta Tombo". The penguins are marine birds adapted to swimming, that is why they spend most of their life into water, even they sleep there. To call their breeding or to attract their couples, when they are in danger, the male penguins emit a sound similar to a bray, on the other hand the pigeons request their daily feeding with a sibilant and continuous tweet. Along the whole Peninsula's coast you can watch dolphins and orcs
( http://www.fundorca.org.ar), they are whales relatives, but they have teeth. The terrestrial fauna is abundant and not less attractive, you can watch, "martinetas", ñandues or choiques, red foxes, gumps and maras. They are autochthonous animals which you can see frequently while traveling from one place to another.

(1): if you want more information aout the southern Argentinean whales, please go to the searcher engine of Argentina On View (Home Page), and in "Search by Keywords" type the Keyword "Whales" (ballenas).