Gaffet: First time | saw orca was quite unexpected.
A quite large group was hunting.
It was this combination of feeling awe
and at the same time,
a little bit of horror and shame.
It goes into your heart
and into your mind, and it doesn't leave you.
Narrator: At the ends of the Earth
is a land of extremes...
...nome to spectacular wildlife.
For centuries,
people and animals have battled for supremacy.
But now enemies are becoming allies.
Together they face new challenges...
...Iin our rapidly changing world.
You are at the mercy of the elements.
Narrator: This is the story
of what it takes to survive...
...on the edge of the world.
WIind whistling
Birds cawing
The land along Patagonia's eastern coast is barren.
But the sea is rich with life.
The Andes cut through Patagonia,
blocking moist air flowing from the Pacific,
creating the eighth-largest desert in the world.
But off the Atlantic coast,
a cold southern current mixes with a warmer Brazilian one,
producing the perfect conditions for marine life.
Thunder crashes
On land, a wild patchwork of desolate beaches...
...rocky outcrops,
and towering cliffs
overlook one of the most important
marine reserves on the planet.
The top predator patrolling these waters?
Orca.
Also known as killer whales,
the largest members of the dolphin family.
This pod of 10 is a close-knit group
that will stay together their entire lives.
The leader of this family is wise old grandma,
known as Maga.
It's high tide, and the 40-year-old matriarch
leads her family towards shore.
Their target?
Unsuspecting seals and sea lion pups.
Barks
But how to get to them on the beach?
The family has perfected an ingenious way to hunt here.
First, they swim sideways to hide their telltale dorsal fins.
The seals have no idea
that these six-ton Kkillers are so close.
Then the orca do something extraordinary.
They beach themselves.
It's a remarkable technique.
Beaches are death traps for whales and dolphins.
It's too easy to get stranded.
But not for this family.
They've learned how to expertly maneuver back into the sea.
Maga and her pod are one of only two orca families in the world
known to pull off this dangerous feat.
Ever since she first laid eyes on them,
orca expert Maria Leoni Gaffet
has been fascinated by these predators.
Gaffet: | was born here in Patagonia,
quite close to the Peninsula Valdés.
It's quite a strong experience
to see them for the first time,
especially, you know, hunting in this manner.
And | guess that's when they started to exist for me.
Narrator: Maria Leoni was determined
to understand their behavior.
She decided to camp out along this desert coastline
for three months a year when the orcas hunt the most.
For 20 years she's observed Maga and her family
and can identify individuals by their unique markings.
Gaffet: You take photos of their fins,
of their saddle patches.
The idea is to do observation of this population
and of their behavior over long periods of time.
Narrator: Maria Leoni realized their hunting technique
was not instinctive, but learned.
Gaffet: They start teaching the calves
when they are really tiny.
You know, they start to bring them to the shore slowly
and safely until eventually they can do it on their own.
Narrator: It's an incredible skill
taught by one generation to the next.
This morning, Maga's hunting class is in session.
She's working with her grandchildren
on their stranding technique.
Gaffet: She's a great teacher.
She's really proficient and professional.
Narrator: Today's challenge —-
the young calves are to swim into the shallows,
grabbing clumps of seaweed.
A practice run like this is critical.
If they master this skKill,
they'll never go hungry.
But one wrong move and they could beach themselves
and die.
Maga leads her class up to the breakers,
daring them to grab some seaweed.
And one bold student eel=ISR{o g1
launching into the shallows.
Success.
Maria Leoni has discovered that it takes four years
for each new generation to master this behavior...
...allowing this orca pod to thrive along the desert coast.
While Maga and her family return to open water,
on land, a real-estate dispute is about to get bloody.
Narrator: The beaches along Patagonia's desert coast
at El Pedral are wild and exposed.
It's not an easy place to raise a family.
Just ask some of its more iconic residents...
Penguin honking
...Magellanic penguins.
Each spring, these migratory waddlers
return from their feeding grounds up north to breed...
...under the watchful eye of conservationist Popi Garcia.
Garcia: The first time | heard about
something called a penguin,
it was through my grandmother.
She used to tell me very, very warm and nice stories
about penguins when | was a small boy.
Narrator: When Popi finally saw them, he was captivated.
Garcia: | was 19, 18 years old.
| came to one of the colonies here in Patagonia,
and that was an epiphany moment because | had the feeling
that | had to dedicate my life to their conservation.
Narrator: Today the beach is busy.
But it wasn't always like this.
Garcia: The first time | came,
there were only six pairs of nests.
This place was a real mess.
There were a lot of reckless people and careless fishermen
coming here, throwing garbage everywhere.
We needed to protect this colony because otherwise
they would leave and they would never come back.
Narrator: It took several years of clearing trash
and getting local support to turn this polluted beach
into a protected area.
Popi's efforts paid off.
And the penguins returned.
Garcia: The colony grew from those
six original pairs of penguins
to over 3,000 pairs now,
so that was a home run.
Penguins honking
Narrator: Popi now lives nearby with his wife, Laura.
During breeding season they regularly monitor the penguins.
Garcia: When you work with them
and you visit them very frequently,
you get to know them better.
And one of the favorite penguins in this colony
is called Clarita.
Narrator: She is one of the original few
that restarted the colony.
Both speaking Spanish
Garcia: We know that she's about 16 years old.
She was able to raise 14 chicks,
and the last two chicks are hatching right now.
Penguins squawking
Narrator: Popi weighs and measures Clarita's newborns
to make sure they're in good health.
Chick squawking
Garcia: Clarita, for me, represents
the hope for this planet.
Whatever we do in terms of conservation
is really worthwhile,
because this colony is showing us
that a small action that we decided to do a long time ago
is having a big impact.
Narrator: The penguins are doing so well here
they're running out of nest sites,
leading to a real-estate crunch.
This male has decided to move in on another family's burrow.
The resident female watches on concerned.
She calls for her partner.
Trills
Squawking
His guttural squawks are a show of dominance.
Continues squawking loudly
But the intruder isn't taking the hint.
The two square off, beak to beak.
The resident on the left gets in some good jabs.
Finally, bloodied and battered,
the home invader is sent packing.
Next time, maybe he'll think twice about
moving into someone else's burrow.
Thirty miles to the north, on Peninsula Valdés,
another colony's numbers are not doing so well.
The small settlement of Playa Larralde
has a population of about 200 people
and shrinking.
Those that remain make a hard living from the ocean.
One of them is Lucas del Rio.
del Rio speaking Spanish
Narrator: Lucas forages for shellfish on the sea floor.
He doesn't use expensive scuba gear.
Instead, air is pumped from a compressor...
...through a rubber hose,
directly into his mouth.
Sixty-five feet below the surface,
he painstakingly collects mussels and scallops.
It's a good harvest.
Lucas can gather up to 60 pounds in just a few minutes.
But over his shoulder, there's another creature lurking.
Narrator: The beaches along Patagonia's Peninsula Valdés
offer little in the way of sustenance,
but its rich waters teem with life.
Below the surface,
diver Lucas del Rio is collecting mussels.
And he has company...
.42 tons of it.
There's never a dull moment when you're working alongside giants.
Lucas takes his haul back to dry land,
avoiding whales as he goes.
This bay is home to hundreds of them.
It's one of the largest nurseries on the planet
for southern right whales.
Their name is a reminder of a darker past
when these slow-moving whales were considered
the right ones to hunt.
They were driven to the brink of extinction.
By the end of the whaling era in the 1960s,
less than 1,000 were left worldwide.
Researcher Mariano Coscarella has been monitoring
their population for decades.
Coscarella speaking Spanish
Mariano is now dedicated to protecting these whales.
Taking skin samples is a key way to monitor them.
But getting one isn't easy.
His crossbow fires a special dart
designed to collect a small amount of skin.
He needs to time his shot perfectly.
This single sample will provide Mariano with a wealth of data ——
the whale's genetics, age, and exposure to pollution,
information crucial to both understanding
more about the species and helping its survival.
The southern right whales have bounced back,
but their healthy population has attracted unwanted attention.
A mother and her calf are being tailed
by a family of killers ——
orca.
Mom heads for the safety of the shallows.
But the orca pod quickly catches up with them.
The young orca is given the chance
to hone its hunting skills.
The right whale mom twists and turns,
putting herself between her baby and the attackers.
In desperation, she wedges her calf on the sea floor,
protecting its soft underbelly.
Her defensive maneuver works.
The orca call off the attack.
The calf is exhausted...
...and comes in for a much-needed feed.
He can drink up to 150 gallons of milk a day.
He'll rely on mom for food and protection for at least a year.
But the right whales aren't the only species
making a comeback here.
This corridor from Bahia Creek to Bahia San Blas
is a haven for several of the ocean's
most misunderstood animals —
sharks.
Blue sharks hunt along this coast.
Their 5,700-mile journey around the Atlantic
is one of the longest of any marine animal.
But there's another dangerous predator in these waters.
Speaking Spanish
Narrator: Ramiro Cambareri is one of the most skilled
shark hunters in Patagonia.
Speaking Spanish
Narrator: He's fished these waters since he was a boy.
Leopard fish is used to bait the hook.
Its scent will lure in any sharks in the area.
Each line is attached to a float on the surface.
It's now a waiting game.
Something has taken the bait.
Speaking Spanish
A sevengill shark.
They normally cruise close to the sea floor.
However, this one was tempted by Ramiro's bait.
But this shark has nothing to fear.
Ramiro's no longer in the shark-killing business.
He's now working to save them.
Sharks have been pushed to the brink of extinction
by overhunting.
Ramiro didn't want to continue being a part of the problem,
and so teamed up with Juan Martin Cuevas
from the Wildlife Conservation Society Argentina.
Speaking Spanish
Narrator: For the last five years,
Ramiro has worked with Juan
catching sharks off the desert coast...
...like this rare tope shark,
which is critically endangered.
Then they insert an acoustic tag.
It transmits a radio signal, which can be picked up
by a network of underwater receivers.
These trackers help the team
to protect the sharks from other hunters
and teach them about their migration patterns.
Men shouting excitedly
They check if the tracker is working.
Water rushing
The signal is loud and clear.
Back on land,
thousands of elephant seals have come ashore
on the beaches of Peninsula VValdés.
These massive seals spend more than 80% of the year
feeding out at sea.
When they come back to land,
they've got one thing on their mind...
...breeding.
Seals grunting
This patch is the domain of one huge male.
He's master of this beach
and has a harem of two dozen females.
He wants to mate with all of them.
Seals grunting
But a young hotshot is trying to sheak in on the action.
The beachmaster keeps a watchful eye.
This new male is taking a big risk,
but it might be his only chance to breed this year.
The beachmaster has seen enough.
Time to show this young pretender who's boss.
Narrator: The beach on the Peninsula Valdés coast
is about to become the scene of a heavyweight clash.
Two 5,000-pound contenders are going head to head.
The prize?
The chance to breed with two dozen females.
Seals grunting
They jab at each other's necks with their canine teeth...
...followed up with a two-and-a-half-ton body slam.
This fight is going the distance.
But in the end, the rookie backs down.
The big male remains the master of the beach,
for now, at least.
When the breeding season is over,
the seals are hungry and return to the open ocean to feed.
They swim east, heading hundreds of miles
off the Patagonian coast to their hunting grounds,
where there is an abundance of one of their favorite foods ——
squid,
an otherworldly creature that spends daylight hours
hiding at depths of more than 2,500 feet.
At night, millions of them rise from the deep
looking for food...
...guided by the light of the moon...
...or so they think.
It's actually the light of a 420-foot fishing vessel.
And it's not alone.
Around 150 ships work these waters.
Each one has 100 powerful lights...
...luring the squid up to the surface...
...where they're snagged by a long line of hooks.
Desperately trying to wriggle free,
the squid squirt jets of water.
But it's no use.
Every day this fleet can catch 7,500 tons of squid
to be sold in Europe and Asia.
It's a brutally efficient operation.
But these underwater creatures do have some protection.
The Argentine Coast Guard is here in force.
Speaking Spanish
NF-Tag= o g Captain Jose Rafael Quinteros
is in charge of this Coast Guard destroyer.
His mission is to make sure the fishing fleet
doesn't stray into Patagonia's waters.
Behind the border,
marine life is protected from this super fleet.
The crew of the destroyer has their work cut out for them...
...because this industrial-scale fishing is relentless.
Large support ships come to meet the fleet,
taking the squid away, refueling, and resupplying.
The fishing boats rarely return to port
and can spend years at sea.
The Coast Guard destroyer is not alone inside the protected zone.
Nearby are two endangered ocean giants ——
a pair of sei whales.
And closer to shore,
hundreds of dusky dolphins.
But it's not just Patagonia's waters that are busy.
The skies above these cliffs
are some of the region's most crowded airspace.
Parrots squawking
Narrator: At the northern tip of Patagonia's desert coast
is El Condor.
Here, the Atlantic Ocean has been carving
the sandstone coastline for millennia.
These crumbling cliffs are now the last refuge of a bird
that used to be found all over South America...
...the burrowing parrot.
Parrots squawking
After wintering up north,
pairs return to the same nest every spring.
It makes sense given how hard they've worked
to dig out these homes.
Some stretch back 10 feet into the cliff.
Mauricio Failla is leading the charge to understand
and conserve the parrots' last stronghold.
Speaking Spanish
Narrator: Mauricio first encountered these parrots
while traveling around Patagonia 20 years ago.
He was smitten, and he's been here ever since.
Mauricio routinely monitors and counts the nests.
Inside most of these nests are hungry chicks.
Today it's this mom's turn to head out on the food run.
The native vegetation she depends on
is disappearing as fast as the Amazon rainforest.
To stand any chance of feeding her family,
she must fly three hours inland to find seeds and berries.
But the long trip isn't the only thing
our mom needs to worry about.
As she returns,
she must deal with the neighbor from hell...
...the fastest animal in the world ——
a peregrine falcon.
Swooping in at over 200 miles per hour,
it terrorizes the colony.
Our mom waits for her moment.
One parrot doesn't make it.
But our mom gets home safely.
Above Mauricio, the skies are full of parrots.
And future generations of these iconic birds
will continue to return here to nest.
At first, this desert coast may seem a barren place.
But its rich waters offer life
to a vast number of incredible animals.
And the continued protection of these threatened creatures
is now more important than ever.
Next on "Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World,"
as summer arrives,
animals are gathering in Patagonia's fjords.
But these remote, rich waters are in high demand.