Atlas del Mar Patagónico

The Atlas of the Patagonian Sea identifies key marine environments used by 16 species of top predators, including albatrosses, petrels, penguins, and pinnipeds. By integrating over 283,600 satellite localisations, the report maps critical foraging areas on the continental shelf and slope, highlighting the urgent need for open-ocean conservation beyond coastal breeding sites. It identifies significant threats to biodiversity, such as overfishing, bycatch, and pollution, and argues for an integrated ecosystem management approach to protect the region's high biological productivity.

• The Patagonian Sea is a highly productive ecosystem, with phytoplankton abundance approximately three times the global ocean average, driven by the Malvinas Current as its functional axis.
• The atlas identifies critical pelagic areas for top predators, including the oceanographic front of the Patagonian Shelf slope, the environment adjacent to the Malvinas Islands, the shelf-slope area at the latitude of the Gulf of San Jorge, and areas influenced by the Río de la Plata outflow.
• Current conservation efforts are insufficient because they focus almost exclusively on coastal breeding sites, leaving the open-sea foraging environments of top predators unprotected.
• Overfishing is the most impactful extractive activity in the region; for example, the adult biomass of Argentine hake fell by 70% between 1987 and 2006 due to landings exceeding maximum allowable catches.
• The squid fishing fleet, detected via satellite night-lights, concentrates in areas that overlap with the most relevant foraging zones for top predators, particularly the slope front near the Gulf of San Jorge.
• Incidental bycatch in longline and trawl fisheries is a primary driver of population declines for several albatross species, many of which are listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List.
• The Black-browed Albatross is the most biomass-heavy species in its group, with approximately 382,000 breeding pairs on the Malvinas Islands and 122,000 in southern Chile.
• Southern Elephant Seals from the Valdés Peninsula exhibit sexual segregation in foraging, with females dispersing much further into the ocean basin and the slope than males.
• The Magellanic Penguin is the most common penguin species in Patagonia, with an estimated world population of 1.3 million pairs, and 86% of this population breeds in approximately 63 colonies within the Patagonian Sea.
• Pollution from oil-based hydrocarbons significantly impacts the Magellanic Penguin; in 1991, at least 17,000 oiled penguins reached the coast between Valdés Peninsula and Cabo Dos Bahías.
• The region faces a growing threat from invasive species, with at least 41 non-native species (primarily invertebrates and algae) already recorded in the Patagonian Sea.

APA

Falabella, V., Campagna, C., & Croxall, J. (2009). Atlas del Mar Patagónico. Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. https://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/uploads/atlas_marpatagonico.pdf

Chicago

Falabella, Valeria, Claudio Campagna, and John Croxall. Atlas del Mar Patagónico. Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, 2009. https://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/uploads/atlas_marpatagonico.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Falabella |first1=Valeria |last2=Campagna |first2=Claudio |last3=Croxall |first3=John |title=Atlas del Mar Patagónico |publisher=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |date=July 2009 |url=https://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/uploads/atlas_marpatagonico.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{falabella2009atlas, author = {Falabella, Valeria and Campagna, Claudio and Croxall, John}, title = {{Atlas del Mar Patagónico}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2009}, month = jul, url = {https://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/uploads/atlas_marpatagonico.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }