The Colorful Story Behind the Mejillones Routing Document

The Port of Mejillones is situated in a habitat like no other - a place of the greatest possible contrast between the Peruvian (or Humboldt) Current, one of the richest sea currents of our blue planet - wild and full-of-life - and the driest, most devoid-of-life desert, the Atacama, gateway and home to some of the planet's largest copper, nitrate, gold, silver and lithium mines. A place in which the needs of some of earth's most rich and magnificent wildlife, and our present day industrial pursuit, come face to face every moment.

In the Atacama, desalination must be used to produce potable water - with a few low-tech innovators collecting the fog from the Pacific using huge vertical screens - because the water table is non-existent. The landscape is barren; more like what one would associate with the planet Mars, than Earth. Yet right offshore, flowing from the 45th parallel in Chile, to the 4th parallel of Peru, the cold Peruvian Current creates an upwelling of nutrients that support planktonic primary production on a truly awesome scale, and thus, over 16 types of marine mammals, eared seals, pelagic birds and a diverse host of fish and other marine animals thrive and multiply in their productive dance of life.   

In 2020, Michael Fishbach went on a reconnaissance trip to the areas near Puerto Montt and Patagonia, Chile to meet the local biologists and see the whales in the straits and fjords first hand, with hopes to encourage whale-data-sharing and collaboration within the community of marine biologists of the country. There, he met biologist Gustavo Chiang. Gustavo was impressed with the work of Great Whale Conservancy and Whale Guardians, and he felt there might be a connection for Michael in the work of his friend Ana M Garcia Cegarra, a cohort he greatly admired. 

Ana is doing amazing work up in Mejillones, you might be interested in what she is doing.

Ana was engaged in independent research from Mejillones at the time, studying the whales found in and around the port. She had founded the NGO, CIFAMAC, to bring in the funds and coalesce her team, to document the whales. First she worked from the high cliffs of the Angamos peninsula using a theodolite and spotting scope. There she observed the activity of the whales, fishing boats, and bulk carrier traffic in close proximity with one another, from the sandy 'Martian' Angamos peninsula. There was a small fishing camp on the small dirt track to the lookout, and she had naturally connected with the fishermen and their families as she was there so regularly.

As the seasons elapsed, Ana began to see more and more strandings of multiple species, including Blue whales, Fins, Humpbacks, and Brydes, most with evidence of death by ship strike. The whales were feeding, according to the diet of their species, on krill and anchovies, right in amongst the fishing vessels. The daily and nightly traffic of bulk carriers were in the mix as well, as they transited to dock to long piers up to a mile from shore, in deep water accommodating bulk carrier ships' draft.

When Michael met Ana, the evidence of their mutual interest was immediate - both wanted to protect the whales of Mejillones, which were clearly in danger as they fed near the Mejillones port region and the world's richest current amongst anchovy fishermen and bulk carrier traffic. The signs were all there: feeding whales, ships, and dead whales. As Ana gained more financial support for her NGO, she began to be able to do observations from a panga, a small local fishing boat, to get closer than the spotting scope allowed to collect photo IDs in the early morning when the ocean is calm enough to work safely.

Over the 2021/2022 Southern Hemisphere summer, Ana collected more data, now funded by Great Whale Conservancy, to add to the body of data she already had. Then, with the necessary information in-hand to design a safe routing recommendation, Captain Michael Barbaix of Belgium, Whale Guardians' routing specialist and decades-long captain of the largest tankers plying the oceans, brought his skills to the drafting table. The two Michaels and Ana met many times to go over the data and shipping traffic, each lending their individual expertise to the process. Michael Barbaix placed the newly collected whale data onto navigational charts. He then examined the whale data, the local bathymetry, the movements of the ships, and pilot exchange locations, combined with his own personal experience of sailing large tankers to Mejillones Port. Thus developed a routing recommendation in collaboration with hard scientific data, rather than modeling; one that avoids whale habitat while respecting the safety and operations of the ship and crew.

By the Southern Hemisphere's autumn of 2022, Ana took the document to port, mayoral, governor and Naval authorities, and all parties approved and agreed to endorse. However, they said there would be no public release of the routing unless Michael Fishbach was present to celebrate the unveiling. The Navy decided to launch the new Whale Guardians routing recommendation at their 143rd Anniversary of the Chilean victory of the battle of Angamos, in which Chile secured and re-established control of their northern territories. Michael flew to Chile to attend. 

 A party atmosphere from a children's story ensued: officers on their naval ship in full regalia, high government officials and port authorities, in the rare company of marine conservationists, biologists and fishermen looking rather uncharacteristically (and possibly uncomfortably) dressed up, a giant Blue whale cake at a gala dinner for 400 people, Chilean TV journalists, cheerful flower wreaths thrown into the sea... as the sound of the Naval brass band's horns and drums punctuated the air, traveling with the fog inland to the silent Atacama desert, and expanding across the waters of the Pacific, amongst the feeding whales, nesting cormorants, honking Humboldt penguins, frolicking eared seals, schooling anchovies and swarming krill...

All in celebration of the new Whale Guardians routing measures, accepted and proclaimed proudly by the Chilean leaders. 

 *Next month, we will explore our ongoing work in Mejillones and the expansion into protective measures for the nearby area of Antofogasta