For generations, humpback whales have traveled to the southern coast of Argentina to calve and nurse. Big petrels and imperial cormorants come to nest, and sea lions and Magellanic penguins congregate. It is likely one of the most wildlife-rich corners of the South Atlantic Ocean and is usually referred to as “the Galápagos of Argentina”—however till lately, most of the animals had been threatened by industrial fishing.

A brand new marine provincial park, the world’s first, will change that. Argentina’s new Patagonia Azul Provincial Park expands the earlier protected sliver of land dramatically, successfully safeguarding a marine coastal space that’s roughly the scale of Yosemite Nationwide Park (or 729,294 acres). Not solely does the acreage shield the area’s plentiful wildlife, who come to feed and breed, but it surely safeguards over 60 islands and islets, kelp forests, and rugged coastal habitats.

“This can be a resounding win for marine conservation,» Sofia Heinonen, govt director of Rewilding Argentina, mentioned in a press launch shared with Journey + Leisure. «Patagonia Azul locations underneath authorized safety probably the most biodiverse areas of the Argentine Sea with over 50 species of seabirds, lots of which nest within the greater than 60 islands and islets with kelp forests, islands and rocky intertidal areas that assist distinctive ecosystems the place numerous sorts of sea life converge.”

Rewilding Argentina, a conservation group that purchases non-public land and donates it for nationwide parks, offered the land that may act as the doorway to the park and its islands. It can additionally assist the park develop services for guests—like campgrounds and trails—and proceed monitoring populations of humpback whales, petrels, penguins, and sea lions. 

The formation of the park was led by the federal government of Chubut (the native province), Argentine Nationwide Parks Administration, non-governmental organizations, and the local people of Camarones.

The brand new, expansive Patagonia Azul Provincial Park is linked to different famend wildlife areas by way of a scenic coastal road that runs from the Cabo Dos Bahías Protected Pure Space, which is thought for its penguin colony, to the village of Bahía Bustamante, the one city in Argentina devoted to gathering seaweed and mussels. 

Plans are underway to make the brand new park extra suited to guests, together with the addition of mountaineering trails, campsites, a organic station, and marine entry factors.