Valdes Peninsula

Valdés Peninsula is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Patagonian Atlantic coast of Chubut province, protected for the concentration of marine mammals that breed along its sheltered bays. Southern right whales gather in Golfo Nuevo and Golfo San José between June and December, and orca patrol the Punta Norte beach in autumn to intercept sea lion and elephant seal pups in one of the most dramatic predator–prey encounters regularly observed in the wild. Magellanic penguin colonies at Punta Tombo, accessible from the peninsula road network, hold over a million birds during the nesting season.