Whale watching at Península Valdés is one of Argentina's greatest attractions! Twenty-meter-long southern right whales come to the Península Valdés in order to give birth and raise their young. They arrive at Valdés at the beginning of June and stay until the end of December.
The whale watching tours leave from Puerto Pirámide on the Península Valdés by boat to set out to find the big southern right whales.They pass a pyramid shaped rock formation of which the town of Puerto Pirámide derives its name.
After sailing for another 10 minutes,the large female southern right whales can be spotted. In the distance you can clearly see something big surfacing and moving around. As the guide steeres you closer, the mother whale stretches her abdomen and sticks her five-meter-wide tail out of the water.
While this large tail is standing up out of the water, the baby calf can be seen swimming around the mother and surfacing from time to time. There are also several seagulls who sit on the big fin and start picking away at it.
That's why the whale only sticks out his head and tail, while keeping most of her body under water. The seagulls actually eat her skin and always pick at the same spot. The whale has a marked area on her fin where the seagulls are constantly picking at it. A 20-meter long whale, attacked and eaten by seagulls!
There are studies being done to try to reduce the amount of seagulls in the area since 2006 and the permission to actually start capturing them with nets and replacing them for further study was given during the first six months of 2010 by an authorized boat.
