By the end of 1999,\u00a0Vald\u00e9s Peninsula<\/strong>was listed as\u00a0World Heritage Site<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>by UNESCO, the reason being that it\u00a0is the protected area in Patagonia having the greatest biodiversity and emblematic species<\/strong> \u2014there are whales, penguins, elephant seals, sea lions,\u00a0 maras <\/em>(Patagonian hares), and guanacos. In addition, this\u00a0is the second largest area in the planet for southern right whale (Eubalaena australis)\u00a0<\/em>reproduction and breeding<\/strong>.<\/p>\n At present, an increasing number of the 1400 specimens that visit the area\u00a0stays longer in Nueva Bay<\/strong>\u00a0just opposite Puerto Madryn<\/a>.<\/p>\n The problem with this change of residence is that there is a great deal of human activity in the ports and piers, posing the naturally curious whalesat\u00a0risk in terms of collision with vessels<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It is calculated that in the northern hemisphere around half of the North Atlantic right whales die after colliding<\/strong>\u00a0with big vessels, and this is the\u00a0risk the southern right whales in the Nueva Bay area are taking<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Vida Silvestre Foundation<\/strong> is forwarding\u00a0a project known as Whales in the Bay<\/strong>, which will allow scientists\u00a0to know where whales are moving and how they use the underwater space to prevent their deaths<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Whales in the Bay<\/em>\u00a0Project is\u00a0supported by local scientists, Aluar<\/strong>\u00a0(private company)and Chubut\u2019s Fauna Office within the Environment Ministry and Conservation Office within the Board of Tourism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Vida Silvestre Foundation\u00a0(a partner of WWF) introduces the Whales in the Bay Project, created to prevent whales and vessels from colliding in the Nueva Bay located in the\u00a0Vald\u00e9s peninsula. By the end of 1999,\u00a0Vald\u00e9s Peninsulawas listed as\u00a0World Heritage Site\u00a0by UNESCO, the reason being that it\u00a0is the protected area in Patagonia having the greatest biodiversity and… Read on<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-puertomadryn"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2074"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15810,"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074\/revisions\/15810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/images\/balle2.jpg\" "\\"Map")
<\/strong>But these\u00a0whales<\/strong>, which have a notorious \u201csociable\u201d character,\u00a0are attracted by non-natural elements<\/strong>\u00a0such as ship hulls or pier piles and alter their geographical distribution.<\/p>\n![\"Southern](\"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/images\/balle1.jpg\" "\\"Southern")
<\/strong>\u201cThere\u2019s a continuous increase of not only whales but also commercial,private, and sports vessels in the area. The solution should\u00a0promote the responsible development of nautical activities<\/strong>\u00a0in order to minimize the risk of physical damage to the whales and material damage to the vessels,” pointed out\u00a0Alejandro Arias, Vida Silvestre Foundation\u2019s coordinator of the species module<\/strong>.<\/p>\n![\"Cruises](\"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/images\/balle3.jpg\" "\\"Cruises")
<\/strong>\u201cWhales in Nueva Bay might be threatened by the same factor if no preventive measures are taken, such as the development of\u00a0a risk map to avoid whale and vessel collision during navigation<\/strong>\u00a0and the design of devices and strategies to minimize risk<\/strong>\u00a0in piers,” said\u00a0Daniel P\u00e9rez Mart\u00ednez, who is in charge of the project<\/strong>.<\/p>\n![\"Georeferenced](\"https:\/\/www.patagonia-argentina.com\/images\/balle4.jpg\" "\\"Georeferenced")
<\/strong><\/em>The research will be carried out usingnovelty methods<\/strong>, such as\u00a0rangefinder binoculars, digital compasses integrated with GPS, and DTAG<\/strong>, all enabling to get the exact location of studied specimens. This will lead to availability of statistical data about the use of geographical space and prevention of conflictive scenarios.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"