Vol. 138 - November 2026

SEVENSEAS Travel Magazine — No. 138 November 2026

SEVENSEAS Marine Conservation & Travel Magazine

No. 138 · November 2026

Welcome to the November issue of SEVENSEAS Marine Conservation & Travel Magazine. This month we travel to Argentina, where unofficial counts put southern right whale calf deaths at Península Valdés above 300 this season, against a 2012 record of 113. From 10 November, Argentina faces the United Kingdom at the Law of the Sea tribunal in Hamburg over the Sea Lion oil field north of the Falklands. Our region-by-region guide follows the country’s wildlife from those whales to the jaguars Rewilding Argentina has returned to the Iberá wetlands, where the foundation counted more than 35 living free by early 2025. Researchers from Curtin University and Taronga Conservation Society Australia find that Australian sea lions and long-nosed fur seals both hear best in air at around 3.2 kilohertz, in the first such tests on either species. Rutgers oceanographers aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor (too) test whether salt finger mixing carries nitrogen up to surface plankton. OceanMind launches Syndra to help Southeast Asian states enforce two ocean treaties together, though it has not said who will pay. A bill to phase out single-use plastics in US national parks has had one Senate hearing and gone no further. Blue Planet III begins on BBC One, with David Attenborough narrating at 100. Cliff diver Molly Carlson drops about 15 metres backwards from a free-floating iceberg off Twillingate, Newfoundland. And much more, in one issue.

Feature destination

Argentina

Four stories from Argentina: a calf die-off at the country’s right whale nursery, the legal fight over oil north of the Falklands, a region-by-region guide to its wildlife, and one traveller’s unplanned trip from Buenos Aires to Patagonia.

Aerial view of a large dark whale with white patches on its head swimming in turquoise water, a much smaller, paler calf pressed against its side

Southern Right Whale Calf Deaths at Argentina’s Península Valdés Pass the 2012 Record

Unofficial counts put this season’s calf deaths at more than 300, against the monitoring programme’s 2012 record of 113. Scientists have found the bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae in samples and suspect kelp gull wounds let it in. The official toll is due in December.

Four sea lions resting on sunlit brown rocks under a blue sky, one with its mouth wide open

Argentina Takes the UK to the Law of the Sea Tribunal Over the Sea Lion Oil Project North of the Falklands

Hearings open in Hamburg on 10 November. An Argentine court has already ordered the project suspended, a ruling AFP called largely symbolic, and environmental lawyers say whales, sea lions and penguins are at risk. One legal scholar doubts the tribunal can rule at all.

Snow-covered granite spires of Mount Fitz Roy reflected in a still lake fringed with tall golden grass, with autumn-coloured forest below the peaks

Argentina: A Conservation Traveller’s Guide to Whales, Wetlands, the Andes and Patagonia

A region-by-region guide, from right whales off Península Valdés to the jaguars Rewilding Argentina has returned to the Iberá wetlands, with notes on the country’s Indigenous peoples, the seasons for each region, and what to ask operators who call themselves eco.

A bearded man in a denim jacket gestures with both hands beside a high window, with a long straight avenue running between city blocks and towers far below under a sunset sky

From Buenos Aires to Península Valdés: Whales, Penguins and an Unplanned Trip Through Argentina

Barcelona-based traveller Costanzo Marro follows a hunch from the theatres of Buenos Aires to Patagonia, watching southern right whales from a boat at Puerto Pirámides and from the beach at El Doradillo, then walking among Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo. Translated from the Italian.

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Also in this issue

Ten more from the November issue

An Australian sea lion sits upright on a wooden pallet with its chin resting on a padded bar of a black metal frame, its nose pressed against a small grey box

Hearing Tests at Taronga Zoo Sydney Measure What Human Noise Australian Sea Lions and Fur Seals Can Hear

Two Australian sea lions and two long-nosed fur seals at Taronga Zoo Sydney pressed a paddle whenever they heard a tone, producing the first in-air hearing curves for both species. All four heard best at around 3.2 kilohertz. Until now, noise assessments for ports and shipping have had to borrow generic criteria.

A yellow and black cylindrical instrument with an orange flag and a ring of bristles sinking through deep blue water below the sunlit surface

Tropical Atlantic Expedition Tests Whether Salt Finger Mixing Feeds Plankton

Rutgers oceanographers Joseph Gradone and Corday Selden spent 25 days aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor (too) measuring a centimetre-scale mixing process in the western tropical Atlantic, to test whether it carries nitrogen up to surface plankton. Results are expected over the coming year.

A brown bear catching a salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska

NSF Bets $20 Million That Biology’s Existing Data Can Predict Resilience

The National Science Foundation has awarded Columbia University $20 million over five years for NSCORE, a synthesis centre that will collect no new specimens. It will apply AI to existing organism data to ask why some species cope with environmental change and others do not.

A lone fisherman paddles a small wooden outrigger boat across open blue water off Cebu in the Philippines

OceanMind Launches Syndra to Coordinate Fisheries Enforcement Across Southeast Asia

Announced at the SAFET 2026 conference in Cebu, Syndra aims to help neighbouring states implement the Port State Measures Agreement and the High Seas Treaty together. OceanMind has not yet named a budget, a timeline or any partner beyond itself.

A weathered plastic bottle lying on sand marked with footprints, with the surf line and a cloudy sky behind

Bill to Phase Out Single-Use Plastics in US National Parks Stalls in Congress

The Interior Department dropped its own parks plastics phase-out in May 2025, and the bill written to replace it has had one Senate hearing. A deadly flood at Grand Canyon shows how much refill and reuse depend on working water systems.

Four large cruise ships and several small boats on the deep blue water of the Santorini caldera, with dark volcanic islets at its centre and brown cliffs in the foreground

Europe Is Learning to See the Ocean. Now It Must Learn to Act

In an opinion piece, Nadia Andreanidou of MEDASSET argues that the OceanEye alliance and Greece’s two new Marine National Parks will only matter if better ocean data changes decisions on fishing, shipping, tourism and energy at sea.

Two men in dark suits walk across a stage, one waving to the audience, beneath a large screen reading Climate Forward and The New York Times

Power Hungry at The New York Times Climate Forward 2026: AI, Energy, Storytelling, and the People Shaping Climate Action

Angela Betancourt reports from Climate Week NYC, where data centres, geothermal and nuclear power, and a session with The Metals Company’s Gerard Barron, protested outside by ocean advocates, shared one stage with Jane Fonda and Erin Brockovich.

Three king penguins stand on a pebbled beach beside a young seal lying on the stones, with more penguins at the waterline and a white ship offshore

Blue Planet III Premieres on BBC One, With David Attenborough Narrating at 100

The BBC’s six-part series began on 1 November, 25 years after the original, with its producers pledging that no generative AI was used. The article asks whether its final episode will credit ocean recovery to the policy decisions behind it.

A woman in a black wetsuit, treading water in dark choppy sea, punches one arm into the air and laughs, with a white iceberg blurred on the horizon behind her

Cliff Diver Molly Carlson Dives From an Iceberg off Twillingate, Newfoundland

The Canadian Red Bull athlete climbed a free-floating berg with ice climber Will Gadd and dropped backwards about 15 metres into the Atlantic. The iceberg specialists who kept her safe warn visitors that bergs can roll or calve at any moment.

Black and white photo of fog drifting across a spruce forest above a calm bay, with several people and a dog silhouetted on a gravel spit at the water's edge

The Ocean Starts Upstream: Restoring the Gulf of Maine Begins With Its Watershed

Rob Moir of the Ocean River Institute argues that one of the best ways to help the Gulf of Maine lies far inland, in rebuilt soils and dense native forests that slow, filter and cool rain before it reaches the sea.

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SEVENSEAS Travel Magazine — No. 138 November 2026

Vol. 138 - November 2026

SEVENSEAS Travel Magazine — No. 138 November 2026

Argentina

Ten more from the November issue

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