Imperial or “blue-eyed cormorants were the first we stopped to see on our way to see penguins. We were travelling by catamaran.

There are Skuas… an aggressive bird that steals food from the cormorants. Petrals are also aggressive … brown.

The first we saw were South America Fur Seals…. max out at 300 kilos for males and 200 females. One alpha male has a haram … one pup per year for each female. The first group were called fur seals but are actually sea lions. These had a pointy snout, the second group were sea lions too but have a pushed in nose.

This second group of sea lion males weight in between 350-400 kilos.

Lighthouse at entrance to Ushuaia Bay. … Les Eclaireurs.

They harvest King Crab here.

Well we saw mostly Magellanic (Ma’gell an’ ic) … the chicks are born in January. There were a few Gentoos…. their chicks are born the beginning of December….. are more territorial. Both are migratory. Gentoos go to same nest year after year.

The boat took us as far as Harberton where a whole lot of people were dropped off.

After stopping in

The Falklands (also known as the Malvinas. There were signs in Ushuaia that referred to it as the capital of the Malvinas. Argentina obviously doesn’t agree that they lost the war), this tour was quite a disappointment. It was a long boat ride without seeing all that much wildlife.

Ushuaia itself is quite large with a major prison. The city of 65-75,000 is built on the side of the mountains and doesn’t look dissimilar to North Vancouver. Note the very defined tree line. The mountains on either side of the Beagle Channel are rugged and steep… coming right down to the waters edge…., kind of reminded us of the coast of B.C.