Isla de Lobos

The Spanish navigator Juan Díaz de Solís recorded the island in 1516, naming it San Sebastián de Cádiz; Sebastian Cabot passed in 1527 and Diego García de Moguer in 1528. From the 18th century it was a strategic point and a centre of the colonial whaling and sealing trade, and its reefs caused numerous shipwrecks, with records going back to 1795. A lighthouse was built in 1858 and rebuilt in 1906; in 2001 it became Uruguay's first automated lighthouse.

Sealing continued until 1992, after a 1991 law banned the slaughter of the animals. In 2024 the island, the islet and about 40 square kilometres of surrounding sea became the Parque Nacional Isla e Islote de Lobos y su entorno sumergido, the first entirely oceanic area in Uruguay's national system of protected areas, to be managed by the environment, fisheries and defence ministries.

Sea lions are part of everyday life in Punta del Este, where they swim around the port waiting for scraps from the fishermen. Around the island, artisanal fishing for mussels, gathered by hand and by divers, is an important local livelihood. The Intendencia de Maldonado has proposed a limited-access visitor project for the island with a new pier, a sea lion centre and wooden walkways.