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The first time Carla Christie saw the Chilean dolphin (Cephalorhynchus eutropia), the second smallest in the world, was on the beach at Niebla, near Valdivia in southern Chile, in 1999, when she was cleaning up coastal trash as a marine biology student at the Universidad Austral: ” That’s when I knew they existed.” They were a small group of about seven endemic whales that were feeding on the coast. “We ran and tried to follow them,” she says excitedly. They didn’t jump or do “anything very spectacular,” he remembers. “But I saw her. It was shocking. “They were there!”
There are still dolphins there, perhaps the same ones you once saw, but with their offspring. He recognized them by their “very special feature: the rounded dorsal fin, like Mickey Mouse's ear,” explains the person who has been popularizing them for 13 years. In the water they “look small because they are no more than 1.6 meters tall, like me,” he laughs. Distant relatives such as the southern dolphin reach a length of 2.2 meters.
According to those who study them, these whales are shy and elusive. It's difficult to see them, and although they don't migrate much, the sea is still huge. “When you think of a dolphin, you think of a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) jumping, looking happy and smiling,” he says. “The Chilean is less acrobatic than others.” He is reserved.
In 2001, Chilean dolphins were recorded on the island of Chiloé. The locals saw him often. There, in the bay of Yaldad, a small fishing village near Quellón, Sonja Heinrich, a German biologist, arrived. He was doing his doctorate and needed assistants. Carla Christie participated in the study of these whales on the nearby islands of Coldita, Laitec, Cailin and San Pedro. Although only there for a few years, the study continued for more than two decades and expanded to Calbuco, Puerto Montt and some southern canals.
The biologist Carla Christie in front of a mural that shows, among other marine species from the southern country, the Chilean dolphin.Carla Christie
The biologist wrote her university thesis about the social life of these dolphins and how it is structured; concluded that they live in groups that “constantly mix and separate.” They flow. He later participated in environmental education in rural schools in the South. He realized how unknown the Chilean dolphin was. Not even the people who lived there, so close to this whale, knew about its uniqueness, he says. “They didn’t know that it was very special, that it only came from Chile and that it was different in morphology.”
He then turned to communication and scientific dissemination. He has completed a master's degree and now gives lectures. He was part of the CNN documentary “Patagonia Extraordinaria,” narrated in English by Pedro Pascal. He wrote the book “El delfín chileno” and is preparing another for 2024 with the publisher LibroVerde. in which he talks about his experiences with the species.
“Village” dolphins
The best way to see the dolphin, which can be 20 meters from the shore, is to go into the sea in a rubber boat, a rubber boat that is suitable for small spaces, is not so expensive and does not make the noise of the whales impaired. “They like well-protected areas where rivers or estuaries have a very strong influence, small, closed bays,” explains marine biologist Luis Bedriñana. In these places they do not compete for food with other animals such as the southern dolphin, nor do they encounter potential predators such as orcas.
The expeditions take place near islands or coasts, in canals and fjords, be it in Chiloé or elsewhere. It occurs in the Valparaíso to Magallanes regions; more than 3,000 kilometers of coastline to the end of the continent. According to Bedriñana, however, there are fewer in Puerto Montt in the north. There the coast is a “straight line,” he says, and there is “less habitat”; while the southern zone becomes fragmented and “very complex”; much more suitable for the species.
“If we were to apply a metaphor to people, it would be as if they lived in small towns rather than big cities,” he compares. “It is very difficult to search the entire range up to Cape Horn and find every one of these small places.” In September, the researcher conducted the first large estimate of these dolphins in northern Patagonia, which amounted to about 2,000 individuals.
A group of Chilean dolphins.Carla Christie
But twenty years ago, Chiloé didn't even have the Internet for daily weather forecasts, Christie remembers. In the south of Chile you can warm yourself from the sea breeze, even if it is summer. Sometimes it rains or hails. The wind is the key. The weather is unpredictable. “We don’t have a boat with a roof, it’s outside,” says the biologist. When the weather is good, the days last up to seven hours and the dolphins “cooperate” by showing themselves. Those are the good days when they go to the field. In the “very bad” cases, it can take entire weeks to go out due to strong winds; then they lock themselves in to analyze the collected data.
Navigation includes encounters with seagulls, South American terns, lily cormorants and Quetru or steam ducks, “very chubby and doesn’t fly,” he specifies; in addition to mammals such as sea lions and native otters, both chungungos on the coast and huillines near rivers; and even whales from other families, such as harbor porpoises and deep-sea divers.
To study dolphins, individuals must be recognized through photo identification of their dorsal fin, which is most visible on the surface. There they analyze the distinguishing features that they have left between each other or through fishing nets, loose ends or propellers. “In this way we have identified 60 individuals and know their life histories without following them,” explains the biologist, as if it were a female with a calf.
Christie has seen indelible scenes. Dolphins sleep, with half of their brains active to get up to breathe. They are minute dreams. “When they are at rest, they float and from a distance they look like a tree trunk,” he describes. “It's super cool to hear them breathing in their sleep, slower, gentler.” In groups, in pairs or threes, no more. “It’s great to see them in their natural behavior.”
Dangers underwater
For the biologist, the shyness that characterizes this species is its way of protecting itself. He assumes that in more isolated areas they would behave more like other whales. Currently, “there is very little information about the Chilean dolphin,” he admits. And much of what is known comes from the two-decade study in Chiloé, where there is heavy traffic from small tourist boats, fishermen and salmon farms.
The genus Cephalorhynchus, to which it belongs, consists of four species that live mainly in Argentina, Namibia and New Zealand. They are similar: small, elusive coastal towns. “But if you compare all estimates of its cousins, this one has a much lower density,” Bedriñana points out. By favoring well-protected areas, he warns, their habitat coincides with activities such as salmon farming and mussel farming: “Especially in Chiloé, they are associated with a lot of ropes, garbage and maritime traffic that are linked to aquaculture,” he says, describing salmon companies “are by far the most common fleet in northern Patagonia.”
Chilean dolphins play in front of a beach full of rubbish.Carla Christie
Veterinarian Cayetano Espinosa, academic at Andrés Bello University and scientific coordinator of Yaqu Pacha Chile, the center in charge of the study in Chiloé, warns of other “stressors that are not necessarily fatal” and difficult to assess, but which cause populations are small, such as noise and chemical pollution. “There are water conditions that are more anoxic, contain more organic matter and less oxygen, and result in sub-optimal conditions that favor the growth of bacteria and microalgae,” he warns. This affects your skin and your immune system, for example.
Another worrying factor is high water temperatures, which are influenced by climate change. Even a few degrees more “changes the water conditions significantly,” warns Espinosa. For example, it influences “the rate of reproduction of algae, the amount of oxygen and the food for dolphins.” “Anything that affects your diet also affects your health,” he emphasizes.
The task of the Yaqu Pacha researchers is to know the perception of the people who live with this dolphin. And it varies quite a bit. In towns like Queilen, a Chilote island, they are known, distinguished from other species and protected, which is closely linked to tourism. However, in places like Queule, which are more focused on other areas, “they tend to be less careful and don't put emphasis on it.” There are areas where they are still used as bait for crabs, like in 1980. And it There are even people who eat them, although this is not common.
Christie acknowledges that cell phones and social networks have helped raise awareness of whales in Chile. He says people are no longer as surprised when they hear there are blue whales or orcas off the Chilean coast. But she continues her fight to popularize the Chilean dolphin and dreams that one day it will become an image on a banknote. “It would be super interesting to show it in a more general and national symbol,” he says. Now he is studying a doctorate in communication with a focus on marine education: “It is important to foster this connection with nature and the sea, which is often scary or strange,” because there is infinite life hidden under the water.