Southern right whales awe admirers in Patagonia after coming back from brink of extinction

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PENÍNSULA VALDÉS, Argentina (AP) — After coming back from the brink of extinction, Southern right whales are swimming in greater numbers off the coast of Argentina's Patagonia this year, delighting tourists seeking to catch a glimpse of their acrobatics.

Peninsula Valdes, located in the Patagonian province of Chubut, is globally important for the conservation of marine mammals and is home to a key breeding population of Southern right whales — an endangered species — as well as elephant seals and sea lions.

“I’ve seen whales in Canada and California, but this was the best and probably the largest number of whales I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Tino Ventz, a German tourist who recently visited the peninsula with his girlfriend.

The Southern right whale was nearly exterminated by hunting expeditions up until the last century. Before large-scale whaling began, the population in southern waters was estimated at around 100,000, before it was decimated to about 600. Since then, it has slowly recovered to roughly 4,700 whales around Peninsula Valdes today.

Whale-watching season in Argentina peaks between August and September. This year, more than 2,000 whales have been spotted, though the actual number is likely higher, scientists say.

Ventz, 24, and his partner joined Argentine Andrea Delfino and her children on a boat trip. Southern winds stirred the whales into more acrobatic breaching, a spectacle that leaves an indelible impression on those who witness it.

Other tourists preferred to watch the whales from the shore, as is common in Brazil or Uruguay.

Watching from the beach, Agustina Guidolín, fulfilled her dream of witnessing “the immensity that borders on the magical and the wild.” The tourists were at El Doradillo Park, a protected natural area in Puerto Madryn where whales give birth very close to the shore.

In addition to Peninsula Valdes and other points in Patagonia, the whales’ migration route extends along Uruguay’s eastern coast and southern Brazil.

Santiago Fernández, a biologist with Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council, is part of a project that since 1999 has carried out two to three aerial surveys each year along 640 kilometers (400 miles) of Patagonian coastline. This year’s count recorded 2,100 whales — 863 of them mothers with calves, and the rest solitary individuals.

“We’re underestimating the number of whales in the area,” Fernández said of the census, noting that it represents only a snapshot, since whales move in and out of the same region as they migrate.

He explained that in 1999 “about 500 whales were counted along that same route,” and that “we’re currently seeing a 3% annual growth rate.”

Fernández added that another project, “Following Whales,” conducted by several national and international organizations, tracks individual whales via satellite telemetry within the San Matias Gulf to the north, the San Jorge Gulf to the south, and beyond, to better understand their routes.

From that project, which began in 2014, scientists learned that once the calves grow, the mothers lead them deeper into the gulfs — whales that are therefore not included in the aerial census.

The growing population is leading to a dispersal — especially of juveniles and mothers that have already calved — toward the San Matias and San Jorge gulfs, and even as far north as the coast of Buenos Aires province.

This expansion also brings the whales closer to risks posed by human activity, such as fishing nets and boat propellers, researchers have found, based on injuries suffered by whales unable to return to Antarctica at the end and beginning of their natural cycle.

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