The Santa Elena Peninsula is a peninsula in Santa Elena Province, Ecuador. The Santa Elena Peninsula contains the westernmost point on mainland Ecuador and is bordered by the Gulf of Guayaquil to the south and the Santa Elena Bay to the north.
The peninsula region is dry and contains resources such as salt mines and a significant oil field at Ancón. [1] The settlement of Chinchipe is the closest settlement to the tip of the peninsula; it is served by Ecuador Highway 70, which extends to the tip of the peninsula.
Whale watchings are popular among the region to observe mainly humpback whales that come to warm, calm waters around the peninsula during their migration seasons, and some species of dolphins such as pantropical spotted dolphins and spinner dolphins can be found as well.
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California. The bay is south of the major cities of San Francisco and San Jose. Santa Cruz is located at the north end of the bay, and Monterey is on the Monterey Peninsula at the south end. The "Monterey Bay Area" is a local colloquialism sometimes used to describe the whole of the Central Coast communities of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins (cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity, but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes. A study prepared for International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2009 estimated that 13 million people went whale watching globally in 2008. Whale watching generates $2.1 billion per annum in tourism revenue worldwide, employing around 13,000 workers. The size and rapid growth of the industry has led to complex and continuing debates with the whaling industry about the best use of whales as a natural resource.
Shepherd's beaked whale, also commonly called Tasman's beaked whale or simply the Tasman whale, is a cetacean of the family Ziphiidae. The whale has not been studied extensively. Only four confirmed at sea sightings have been made and 42 strandings recorded. It was first known to science in 1937, being named by W. R. B. Oliver after George Shepherd, curator of the Wanganui Museum, who collected the type specimen near Ohawe on the south Taranaki coast of New Zealand's North Island, in 1933.
The false killer whale is a species of oceanic dolphin that is the only extant representative of the genus Pseudorca. It is found in oceans worldwide but mainly frequents tropical regions. It was first described in 1846 as a species of porpoise based on a skull, which was revised when the first carcasses were observed in 1861. The name "false killer whale" comes from the similar skull characteristics to the killer whale.
The pygmy killer whale is a poorly known and rarely seen oceanic dolphin. It derives its common name from sharing some physical characteristics with the killer whale. It is the smallest cetacean species that has "whale" in its common name. Although the species has been known to be extremely aggressive in captivity, this aggressive behavior has not been observed in the wild.
Right whale dolphins are cetaceans belonging to the genus Lissodelphis. It contains the northern right whale dolphin and the southern right whale dolphin. These cetaceans are predominantly black, white beneath, and some of the few without a dorsal fin or ridge. They are smaller members of the delphinid family, oceanic dolphins, and very slender. Despite scientists being long acquainted with the species, little is known about them in terms of life history and behaviour.
The Otago Peninsula is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin, New Zealand. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour. The peninsula lies south-east of Otago Harbour and runs parallel to the mainland for 20 km, with a maximum width of 9 km. It is joined to the mainland at the south-west end by a narrow isthmus about 1.5 km wide.
Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, 21 km (13 mi) from the harbour mouth. It is home to Dunedin's two port facilities, Port Chalmers and at Dunedin's wharf. The harbour has been of significant economic importance for approximately 700 years, as a sheltered harbor and fishery, then deep water port.
Breiðafjörður is a large shallow bay, about 50 km wide and 125 km long, in the west of Iceland. It separates the region of the Westfjords (Vestfirðir) from the Snæfellsnes peninsula to the south. Breiðafjörður is encircled by mountains, including Kirkjufell and the glacier Snæfellsjökull on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, and the Látrabjarg bird cliffs at the tip of the Westfjords. Numerous smaller fjords extend inland from Breiðafjörður, the largest being Hvammsfjörður at its southeastern corner. An interesting feature of the bay is that the land to the north was formed about 15 million years ago, whereas the land to the south was formed less than half that time ago.
Parengarenga Harbour is a natural harbour close to the northernmost point on the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the northern end of the Aupouri Peninsula, it extends inland for over 10 kilometres, almost severing the northern tip of the island from the rest of the peninsula. The harbour's mouth is towards the norther end of Great Exhibition Bay. The island's northernmost point, at the Surville Cliffs is only about 10 kilometres north of the harbour. Te Hapua is a settlement at the western side of the harbour.
Santa Elena is a town in southwestern Ecuador, and is the capital of both the province and the canton of the same name. Santa Elena, originally called Sumpa, is located on the Ecuadorian peninsula near the city of Guayaquil. It is regarded as the location of the most important and best documented archaeological site in the country, predominantly due to the discovery of the Lovers of Sumpa.
Salinas is a coastal city located in the Province of Santa Elena, Ecuador. It is the seat of the canton that bears its name. The westernmost city on mainland Ecuador, Salinas is an important tourist center. Salinas, Ecuador's largest coastal resort, offers one of the country's best real estate investment markets and most popular and most upscale beach lifestyle. It was the site of the ISA World Junior Surfing Games Ecuador in 2009. There are two major yacht clubs in Salinas, the first is Salinas Yacht Club, which is smaller than the Puerto Lucia Yacht Club, in Santa Elena, in an area known as 'La Libertad' which, in Spanish means 'The Freedom Town'. Puerto Lucia boasts a hotel, several restaurants, a private beach and apartment buildings, as well as the large marina and port.
Isabela Island is the largest island of the Galápagos with an area of 4,640 square kilometres (1,790 sq mi) and length of 100 kilometres (62 mi), almost four times larger than Santa Cruz, the second largest of the archipelago. It was named after Queen Isabella I of Castile. The island straddles the equator. This island was originally named Albemarle Island for the Duke of Albemarle by Ambrose Cowley, one of the first men to ever set foot on the islands, in 1684.
La Libertad is a city located in western Santa Elena, Ecuador, by the sea. It is the seat of La Libertad Canton.
The Las Vegas culture is the name given to many Archaic settlements which flourished between 8000 BCE and 4600 BCE.(10,000 to 6,600 BP) near the coast of present-day Ecuador. The name comes from the location of the most prominent settlement, Site No. 80, near the Las Vegas River and now within the city of Santa Elena. The Las Vegas culture represents "an early, sedentary adjustment to an ecologically complex coastal environment."
The Province of Santa Elena is a province of Ecuador in the coastal region. Created in 2007 from territory that belonged to the Guayas Province, it is one of the two newest provinces of Ecuador, along with Santo Domingo de Los Tsáchilas. Its capital city is Santa Elena, from which the province derives its name.
Cintra Bay or the Gulf of Cintra is a large, half-moon shaped bay on the coast of Río de Oro province, Western Sahara. It is located about 120 km (75 mi) south of Dakhla. Its coastline is sparsely populated, and the environment is mostly wild and undeveloped. Originally called "St. Cyprian’s Bay", it was renamed after Gonçalo de Sintra, a 15th-century Portuguese explorer and slave raider.
The State University Santa Elena Peninsula, is a public university located in the canton freedom of the province of Santa Elena in the Republic of Ecuador, is the first autonomous center of teaching and which has the largest student population in the area.
The Dos Bocas Formation is a Chattian, about 26 to 24 Ma, geologic formation of the Progreso Basin in southwestern Ecuador.
Coordinates: 2°11′45″S80°59′02″W / 2.1958°S 80.9838°W