300px, Satellite image of Inútil Bay and the Strait of Magellan. Selected settlements are marked with yellow dots. Inútil Bay (Spanish: ''Bahía Inútil'') or Useless Bay is a bay in the western and Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego Island. Located as a body of water in the

Strait of Magellan The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago to the south. Considered the most important natura ...

, Inútil Bay provides access to Camerón and other settlements in

Timaukel Timaukel is a commune located in the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego Island. It is part of Tierra del Fuego Province in Magallanes Region. The commune is administered by the municipality in Villa Cameron, which is the main port and settlement ...

commune. Timaukel commune used to be called ''Bahía Inútil''. The Spanish word ''inútil'' can be translated as ''useless.'' The bay was thus named in 1827 by Captain

Phillip Parker King Phillip Parker King (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts. Early life and education King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Anna Josepha King ''née'' Coo ...

, because it afforded "neither anchorage nor shelter, nor any other advantage for the navigator".

Formation and Natural Features

During the last glacial period, massive glaciers covered what is now Bahía Inútil. At the peak of the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Last Glacial Coldest Period, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period where ice sheets were at their greatest extent between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. Ice sheets covered m ...

, the ice field extended from north of present-day

Punta Arenas Punta Arenas (, historically known as Sandy Point in English) is the capital List of cities in Chile, city of Chile's southernmost Regions of Chile, region, Magallanes Region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. Although officially renamed as ...

, passing through the Strait of Magellan and reaching as far as the middle of the bay. As the glaciers retreated, a

proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around t ...

filled much of the area until the most recent glacial advance, which ended approximately 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. Today, Bahía Inútil is a broad, flat bay lined by a coastal road that links several hamlets and small riverside settlements, including Caleta Rosario, Armonía, Caleta Jorquera, Puerto Nuevo, Onaisin (formerly Estancia Caleta Josefina), Estancia La Florida, Villa Cameron, and

. Along its eastern shore lies the privately owned King Penguin Park, a unique site on the continent where Aptenodytes patagonicus (

King Penguin The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller than but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. King penguins mainly eat lanternfish, squid, and krill. On foraging trips, king pen ...

) is regularly observed. The park has been officially authorized by Chile’s Ministry of the Environment. In recent years, the harvesting of mollusks and crustaceans has also been permitted in certain areas of the bay. Species such as ''navaja de mar'' ( Ensis Macha), Magellan mussel, Chilean mussel,

Mytilidae The Mytilidae are a family (biology), family of small to large Marine life, marine and Brackish water, brackish-water bivalve molluscs in the order (biology), order Mytilida. One of the genera, ''Limnoperna fortunei, Limnoperna'', even inhabits f ...

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...

, ''picoroco'' (

Austromegabalanus psittacus ''Austromegabalanus psittacus'', the giant barnacle or ' as it is known in Spanish, is a species of large barnacle native to the coasts of southern Peru, all of Chile and southern Argentina. It inhabits the littoral and intertidal zones of roc ...

), ''maucho'' ( Nacella Magellanica), and ''lapa'' (

Patellogastropoda The Patellogastropoda, common name true limpets and historically called the Docoglossa, are members of a major phylogenetic group of marine (ocean), marine gastropods, treated by experts either as a clade or as a taxonomic Order (biology), order. ...

) are among those collected in zones rich in marine life.

References

Strait of Magellan Bays of Chile Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego Bodies of water of Magallanes Region {{MagallanesyAntártica-geo-stub