Ballenas: Live Whale Broadcasts (Península Valdés)
Independent historical guide to Lupa Corporation’s digital tourism projects in Argentina. Not affiliated with the former operator.
La Vigilia de las Ballenas
Lupa Corporation, an Argentine company focused on turismo digital, pioneered live web broadcasts of natural events. The Ballenas section covered the arrival of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) to Península Valdés and Puerto Madryn, Chubut — an event the company called La Vigilia de las Ballenas.
Press reports from 2008 described the site drawing nearly 150,000 concurrent visitors from dozens of countries during the whale season, at times overwhelming server capacity — evidence of how novel live nature streaming was at the time.
These broadcasts let viewers worldwide watch whales calve and mate in Patagonian waters without travelling to Argentina, and helped inspire real tourism to the region.