^*t«A. 



^^^^'i&m 



-•i,^^^^ 





In the days that followed, we found the 

 peninsula to be one of the world's greatest 

 comings-together of land, sea, and wild- 

 life. The currents in the bays, which can 

 reach six knots, are generated by tides that 

 rise and fall as much as thirty feet — a tidal 

 ampUtude, the locals claim, second only to 

 that in the Bay of Fundy. Albatrosses, pe- 

 trels, shearwaters, fulmars, terns, and gulls 

 ride the winds of the roaring forties, while 

 penguins shuffle up beaches. We saw sea 

 lion rookeries and elephant seal harems 

 that stretched for thirty miles along the 

 shore to where they dissolved in the dis- 

 tant heat shimmer. Elephant seals reared 

 up as we approached, making loud, intim- 

 idating belches — an after-diimer noise of 

 such exquisite vulgarity tliat even the most 

 jaded eight-year-old boy could not have 

 failed to be stunned with delight by them. 



One morning one of our hosts — we 



were guests of the local tourist office — 

 showed Katy a deserted beach in Golfo 

 San Jose from which he had often seen 

 whales. Later that afternoon we all visited 

 the place. It was less than a mile long and 

 flanked by tall cliffs that stretched along 

 the coast to the north and west. I climbed 

 the westem cliffs and walked to a nearby 

 headland, where we later established an 

 observation hut. The wind had died, and 

 the sun was setting in a spectacular display 

 of colors. As the peace and stillness seeped 

 into me, a whale started breaching far out 

 in the bay, followed in the next few min- 

 utes by two others closer to shore. In all I 

 counted thirty-two right whales. 



I reaUzed that we had discovered the ul- 

 timate place from which to study whales, a 

 place where they came so close to shore 

 that we could work from land and not dis- 

 turb them. Neither would we have to raise 



enormous funds to support the costs of op- 

 erating seagoing boats. Here we could 

 even bring our four young children, and 

 they would be safe, safe among whales. 



The next year, with fiinds from the New 

 York Zoological Society, we established a 

 camp on the beach and later a permanent 

 research station. Katy and I lived there for 

 almost four years with our children, the 

 most formative of their lives and our hap- 

 piest as a family. It was the longest I have 

 ever hved continuously in the wild, and 

 this stretch of Patagonian coast became 

 my heart's home. 



Since we founded Whale Camp twenty- 

 three years ago, I have returned to Penin- 

 sula Valdes every year between August 

 and mid-November (with the exception of 

 three seasons when others were present to 

 do the work) — the longest continuous 

 study of a whale species based on recog- 



42 Natural History 1/94 



