MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Whales are back in Patagonia and can be seen on internet

Franca whales are back in Argentine Patagonia, more precisely at Peninsula Valdes and the provincial government of Chubut has resorted to internet video to share whale watching with a world audience.

According to Chubut tourism officials Franca whales, also known as southern right whales feed somewhere in the South Atlantic during the summer and autumn and then return to Argentine waters in the winter and spring to raise their calves. Since they are slow swimmers they were hunted almost to extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries. The internet video can be seen until next Sunday through the official site: http://www.lupacorp.com/ballenas/index.php which last year attracted over 150.000 visitors from a hundred different countries. "This year we're again betting on digital tourism as an economic development strategy and the international release of the sights of our province to the world", said Daniel Taito, Chubut's Deputy Public Information secretary". Whales in the Valdez Peninsula can be watched along the coast line as they frolic in the bay but there are also special motor barges with transparent bottoms which move along nature's largest mammals. This year the Chubut tourism office is planning a special show with a renowned Argentine musician playing for the whales, under water submerged in glass and metal bubble.