El margen del horizonte

The Strait of Magellan is a maritime passage located at the southern tip of South America, between Patagonia and the large island of Tierra del Fuego. It is the main natural passage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer and navigator in the service of Charles I of Spain, was the first European to sail through the strait in 1520 during his circumnavigation of the globe. Until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, the Strait of Magellan was the main route for steamships traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Today, this entire area, especially Patagonia, remains one of the most pristine waters in the world, but it is seriously threatened by the fishing industry, which is establishing itself on the last remaining virgin coastlines of the country, in the Magallanes region, south of Patagonia, and in the southwestern Atlantic on the Argentine side. The expansion is occurring without scientific evidence or serious studies to limit production to water capacity. This could have catastrophic consequences for local ecosystems, which are part of one of the world's largest aquifer reserves.

These photographs were taken during several voyages from the Port of Coquimbo to the Strait of Magellan in Chile, concluding with a stop in Puerto Madryn, located in the northeast of Chubut Province, Argentina. They were also taken from Montevideo, Uruguay, heading south again. The voyages took place between December 2015, February 2017, November 2019, and March 2019.