Argentina Creates New Coastal Marine Park

The park in southern Argentina's Chubut province became official in December. It protects half a million penguins and several species of rare seabirds as well as the region's only population of South American fur seals.

The park's creation represents a joint effort by the National Parks Service of Argentina, Government of Chubut, and the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society and its local partner Fundacion Patagonia Natural with support from the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility.

Golfo San Jorge, Argentina (Photo by Hector Fabian Garrido)

"The park protects one of the most productive and extraordinary marine ecosystems on the planet," said Dr. Guillermo Harris, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Argentina Program. "The creation of this park comes in the nick of time for many species that are threatened by the region's fishing and energy industries."

"It is the realization of an old yearning, of a dream," said Chubut Governor Mario Das Neves. "It is different from other parks in Argentina, protecting 40 species in addition to the birds."

"The objectives of the creation of this Coastal Marine Park are to maintain representative samples of the terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems; to protect the landscape, cultural and natural patrimony; and to cause and to facilitate environmental investigations and monitorings as main activities in the area, the governor said.

He said the park will bring back awareness of the importance of conservation and of guaranteeing the public use of the area "to contribute to the physical and spiritual well-being of visitors."

Located in the northern Golfo San Jorge, some 1,056 miles (1,700 kilometers) south of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, the protected area covers 250 square miles (647 square kilometers) of coastal waters and nearby islands along almost 100 miles (160 kilometers) of shoreline.

The region serves as a nesting and feeding ground for some quarter million pairs of Magellanic penguins, estimated to represent 25 percent of the entire population in Patagonia.

Magellanic penguins in Argentina Patagonia (Photo credit unknown)

Its 50 small islands also support two nesting colonies of southern giant petrels that represent over 80 percent of its population on the entire Patagonian coast. Other denizens of this coastal oasis include the endangered Olrog's gull, the white-headed steamer duck, and almost one third of all imperial and rock cormorants of Argentina.

WCS researchers, working with Fundacion Patagonia Natural, provided critical data of key wildlife to ensure that the park's boundaries would include both onshore areas and adjacent waters. Researchers found that the area was in need of protection from increasing pressures by commercial fishing and the oil industry.

While the new park's coastline is still undeveloped, its wildlife has been increasingly threatened by commercial fishing nets, which can entangle birds as they feed.

The wildlife is also threatened by expanding offshore oil drilling and oil pollution from tankers sailing from southern Patagonia to Buenos Aires.

In January 2008, the discovery of a large new oil field in Chubut province was announced by the Anglo-Argentine company Pan American Energy. It is expected to provide an annual yield of between 80 million and 100 million barrels of crude oil, twice a much as the province produces today, increasing the pressure on the area's wildlife.

WCS has been active in Patagonia since the 1960s, conducting studies for the conservation of southern right whales, Magellanic penguins, southern elephant seals, and other unique wildlife.

The conservation organization manages some 740,000 acres of wilderness on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego, part of a major donation of land made by Goldman Sachs in 2004.

Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas has provided funding for the creation of this coastal protected area and for WCS's multi-faceted efforts to safeguard coastal Patagonia.

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