The tail of a whale
The Southern Right whale is one of the Great whales or Baleen whales. They can weigh up to 60 tons (54,431 kg), grow to as long as 55 feet (15.5 m) and live to over fifty years old. Due to their thick layer of blubber they cannot cross the tropics so they migrate back and forth across the southern hemisphere in search of Plankton and suitable places to breed. They estimate there was once 60,000 Right whales traveling the oceans but by the time we got round to realizing whaling needed regulating (it took us few more years to realize it actually needed banning outright) Right whales had been hunted almost to extinction. Today they remain endangered though with their numbers estimated at 7,000 they are no longer in the red.
A mother and calf from the air
There are a variety of places to see Right whales however our Peninsula Valdes, off the coast of the Argentine Patagonia, has a unique feature of two sheltered coves which are the perfect places for the whales to breed.
Over a thousand Right whales pass by these coves each year. You do not even need to go out to sea to watch them, you can just walk along the beach. There are stories of where, in the parts of the shore where the water remains deep right up to the land, the whales come so close people can reach out to let the calves sniff their hands. However, the best place to see them is still from the boats which the whales to seem find very curious and almost as if they know they are on show they start to frolic and jump around in the water when the boats come close to them.
Showing off!
Where in Argentina -> The whales of Peninsula Valdes
