July 29th, 2008, Débora Arcucci, Florencia Kröhling and Jimena Belgrano, who writes, are in the city of Caleta Olivia carrying out our 6 th research season in the north of the province of Santa Cruz as part of the fieldwork we have been developing, throughout the coast of the province since 2000 when we began this project.
For those who follow this project, in 2003 we carried out our first campaign in the spot La Lobería and the city of Caleta Olivia. Today, after six years of continuing research in the area, we know that the whales visit the area between May and September, being the months of July and August the ones with the highest number of whales in the area.
Since the beginning of our work we have recorded the presence of mothers with calves and many copulation groups, so we believe that the area could be an old nursing area for this specie that currently is recovering after the moratorium on commercial whaling came into force.
During the days of campaign we have seen various groups of Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis), as well as Peale’s dolphins (Lagenorhynchus australis) and Commerson’s dolphins (Cephalorhynchus
commersonii).
As part of the activities that we carry out for this project, and for the second consecutive year, we work with the school of Biología Marina y Laboratorista nº 1 of the city, giving a lecture to students from 2nd year of secondary school, who will do an activity related to whales and an field trip to see how our fieldwork is.
During 2007, we made our first overflight with the support of the Prefectura Naval Argentina (Argentine Coast Guard)  to photo-identify the whales of the Golfo San Jorge. The aim of this activity is to make a catalogue that will be used to compare the identified animals with those who have also been identified at other sites within the distribution range of the species. Having identified our first three individuals, we hope this year we can continue with this work.