CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES

• Working to make the Ocean Alliance's 30 year database of the right whales of Peninsula Valdes a resource for right whale protection and management in Argentina. We are beginning a program to bring Argentine researchers to our laboratory in the US so they can learn how to access and maintain the database and use it to answer management questions about the whales both now and in the future.
• Working with our Argentine representatives at the Instituto de Conservacion de Ballenas (www.icb.org.ar) to document conservation issues, prepare educational materials and develop educational programs as a means of informing people about right whales and developing broad support for right whale protection within the country. Many Argentines travel to the Peninsula each year to see the whales from whale watch boats like the one pictured here.
• Raising funds to teach a curriculum in schools surrounding Peninsula Valdes on the wildlife of the region so as to encourage student involvement in its preservation.
• Working to find a way to reduce the problem of gull harassment of the Peninsula Valdes right whales. Refuse from fish processing plants near Peninsula Valdes has created a problem by inflating gull populations. Young gulls have difficulty competing for limited natural food and in the 1970s they began feeding on skin and blubber that they pried from the whales' backs. Other gulls copied the behavior and now mothers and calves spend a quarter of their day fleeing gull attacks. The mothers' flight uses up blubber reserves that were destined for their calves. Most calves older than two weeks have a chain of lesions on their backs (like the one pictured here) where they have been repeatedly attacked by gulls.

To learn more about our activites in Argentina, visit the web site of our affiliates:

Instituto de Conservacion de Ballenas (ICB)
Garcia Merou 833 - Martinez -1640
Buenos Aires- Argentina
Tel/Fax: (011) 4717-2800
Email: icb@icb.org.ar
http://www.icb.org.ar