Patagonia Mapmakers Helped by Sea Lions, Penguins

It's often the case that the successful completion of a complex and ambitious project requires the participation of many individuals lending time and effort to the cause.

In the instance of compiling a first-of-its-kind atlas of the remote, poorly understood, but environmentally significant waters off of South America's Patagonia, that help came from legions of penguins and sea lions outfitted with electronic equipment for gathering and transmitting data about their environment.

The new 300-page volume, Atlas of the Patagonian Sea: Species and Spaces, was produced through a collaboration between the Wildlife Conservation Society and BirdLife International. The atlas provides a clearer depiction of this remote region than any we've previously had access to, and came about through the locational referencing of data collected and sent by thousands of sea lions, albatross, penguins and other local species who were tagged to help out with the project.

More than a dozen different species in all were made digital deputies, collecting and sending information as they went about their business, none the wiser that they were being a huge help to the environmental scientists keen to create the long-overdue atlas of these elusive marine systems.

A rightfully proud project team characterizes the resulting atlas as offering "the most accurate maps ever assembled for this ecosystem revealing key migratory corridors that span from coastlines to deep-sea feeding areas off the continental shelf hundreds of miles away."

As announced in a press release published at EurekAlert, Wildlife Conservation Society President Steven Sanderson expresses enthusiasm for the completion of the atlas as well as for how it came to be:

"The Patagonian Sea is a remarkable intersection of global physics, marine biodiversity, and climate and economic change. The Atlas of the Patagonian Sea will advance conservation of this region and can serve as a roadmap for the creation and management of future marine protected areas — of which there are precious few worldwide."

Photo courtesy of Mirko Thiessen, via Wikimedia Commons