RAMUSIO AGGIORNATO by Fernando Martín Velazco

In the illustrated chronicle corresponding to the third volume of Navigations and Travels by Giovanni Battista Ramusio (Venice in 1556), the testimony of the sailors records the concurrent presence of “more than five hundred whales” and a “considerably large” stemmed marine plant during the exploration of the American coast of the North Pacific in 1540.

This work updates this naturalistic observation with the one made by Fernando Martín Velazco during the cycle “Los Juegos del Leviatán”. In this, the swimming of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) between landslides of giant Kelp algae (Marocystis pyrifera) is recorded in the same season and geographical area, 480 years later.