Seno Aisen, Cinco Hermanas, and Isla Magdalena
This morning during breakfast, the National Geographic Endeavour entered Seno Aisen and dropped anchor near a small archipelago called Cinco Hermanas. These islands have been designated as a national park, and we took the opportunity to get the kayaks and Zodiacs out to investigate this scenic spot. Once we were in amongst the islands, we noticed right away that our northward progress over the last few days had brought us into a forest with a higher level of diversity. This was our first look at the Valdivian Temperate Rainforest. The forest was still dominated by Nothofagus, but there were several species of conifers, a native bamboo, and a ground bromeliad that were new to us. Looking around the fjord we saw many more signs of civilization than we have experienced so far as there were a couple of salmon farms in the area and several fishing boats. On the backside of one of the islands we came upon a small fishing boat where two men were working pulling in a longline. They were fishing for merluza, a species of hake, and congrio, which is also called king clip. Our naturalist from Chile, Tato, was in one of the Zodiacs and spoke to the fisherman finding out that they were from Puerto Aisen, which is about three hours away at the end of Seno Aisen. Their boat was very small, and we were surprised to find out that in the summer they spend two weeks fishing before returning home and in the winter they are out for four or five days.
After our various small boat activities, we returned to the ship for lunch and continued our way northward. In the early afternoon, we entered the very scenic Canal Puyuguapi, which borders Isla Magdalena, another national park. Our Chilean naturalist, Tato, gave a presentation on salmon farming in Chile explaining a bit about the process of raising salmon and some of the issues surrounding the industry. Economically salmon farming has been beneficial for Southern Chile as salmon is now one of the country’s important export products, however, there are environmental and cultural concerns that have developed as a result of the increased salmon production. He closed by saying he is hopeful that in the future regulations would be developed that will be environmentally sensitive and be beneficial for the people from the area who work in the industry. Later in the afternoon, we had another installment of our wine tasting experience with Max, our wine expert, and at recap we saw the preview of the video chronicle, which gave us the chance to look back at the first few days of the trip and see if we made it in the video.
This morning during breakfast, the National Geographic Endeavour entered Seno Aisen and dropped anchor near a small archipelago called Cinco Hermanas. These islands have been designated as a national park, and we took the opportunity to get the kayaks and Zodiacs out to investigate this scenic spot. Once we were in amongst the islands, we noticed right away that our northward progress over the last few days had brought us into a forest with a higher level of diversity. This was our first look at the Valdivian Temperate Rainforest. The forest was still dominated by Nothofagus, but there were several species of conifers, a native bamboo, and a ground bromeliad that were new to us. Looking around the fjord we saw many more signs of civilization than we have experienced so far as there were a couple of salmon farms in the area and several fishing boats. On the backside of one of the islands we came upon a small fishing boat where two men were working pulling in a longline. They were fishing for merluza, a species of hake, and congrio, which is also called king clip. Our naturalist from Chile, Tato, was in one of the Zodiacs and spoke to the fisherman finding out that they were from Puerto Aisen, which is about three hours away at the end of Seno Aisen. Their boat was very small, and we were surprised to find out that in the summer they spend two weeks fishing before returning home and in the winter they are out for four or five days.
After our various small boat activities, we returned to the ship for lunch and continued our way northward. In the early afternoon, we entered the very scenic Canal Puyuguapi, which borders Isla Magdalena, another national park. Our Chilean naturalist, Tato, gave a presentation on salmon farming in Chile explaining a bit about the process of raising salmon and some of the issues surrounding the industry. Economically salmon farming has been beneficial for Southern Chile as salmon is now one of the country’s important export products, however, there are environmental and cultural concerns that have developed as a result of the increased salmon production. He closed by saying he is hopeful that in the future regulations would be developed that will be environmentally sensitive and be beneficial for the people from the area who work in the industry. Later in the afternoon, we had another installment of our wine tasting experience with Max, our wine expert, and at recap we saw the preview of the video chronicle, which gave us the chance to look back at the first few days of the trip and see if we made it in the video.
