Brazil's Southern Right Whale Capital
Every June through November, southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) migrate from sub-Antarctic feeding grounds to the warmer waters of the southern Santa Catarina coast to calve and nurse — and the bays around Imbituba and Garopaba host the densest concentration in Brazil, roughly 200 individuals across the season. The species was hunted to near-extinction by the early 20th century; the South American population alone fell to fewer than 50 reproductive females. The fact that mothers and calves now surface within sight of the kite beach is the result of one of South America's longest-running marine conservation projects, not a coincidence of geography. Imbituba is the official capital of the right whale in Brazil — designated by federal decree — and the cetacean appears on the city's coat of arms.
From Whaling Station to Conservation Pioneer
Imbituba's relationship with the right whale runs in two directions. The Companhia de Pesca Norte do Brasil operated an industrial whaling station here that processed southern right whales for oil and meat until federal pressure shut it down in 1985 — Brazil's last operating whaling facility. The Projeto Baleia Franca (Right Whale Project), founded in 1981 by researcher Ibsen de Gusmão Câmara, ran in parallel and ultimately won: the Área de Proteção Ambiental da Baleia Franca, a 156,100-hectare federal marine protected area covering 130 km of coastline from Balneário Rincão north to Florianópolis, was created in 2000 to protect the calving grounds. Don't read Imbituba's whale tourism as untouched ecology — read it as a place that turned an industry around within a single generation.
Sambaqui Shell Mounds — 6,000 Years of Coastal Settlement
The Imbituba–Garopaba–Laguna stretch holds one of the densest concentrations of sambaquis on earth — pre-Columbian shell-and-bone mounds built by coastal hunter-fisher-gatherer societies between roughly 6,000 and 1,000 years before present. Hundreds of sites have been mapped across southern Santa Catarina; the largest in the broader region exceed 30 metres in height and contain human burials, lithic tools, and zooarchaeological deposits that have rewritten what archaeologists understood about Atlantic Forest coastal complexity. The sambaqui builders were not a footnote between 'wilderness' and Portuguese colonisation — they were the long civilisation. Several sites within driving distance of the kite beach are signposted; most remain on private land and require a local guide.
Açorean Fishing Town, Working Port — Less Polished Than Florianópolis
Imbituba was settled by Azorean (Açorean) immigrants from the mid-18th century onwards as part of the Portuguese Crown's plan to populate southern Brazil — the same wave that gave Florianópolis and Laguna their characteristic stone churches, lacework (renda de bilro), tainha (mullet) fishing economy, and Catholic festival calendar. Unlike Floripa 95 km north, which has spent two decades reinventing itself as a tech-and-tourism hub, Imbituba kept its working-port character: the Porto de Imbituba still moves coal, salt, and containers, and the fishing fleet still leaves before dawn. The kite scene sits on top of a real town, not inside a resort enclave. Expect industrial cranes on one horizon and whales on the other.