Originally posted by bajabuddha
I've camped the Bahia Concepcion since the middle nineties, and the shell middens surrounding the shorelines were old and sunbleached even then. The
way i heard the story was in the '60s the Japanese did a little palm-greasing with the Mexican Gov't and came in with processing boats and dragged the
entire bay STERILE. They either took a couple of years to do it, or came back and did it twice, depending on who's version you hear.
The bay was named for its' abundancy of life and procreation beforehand, and the ships worked every inch of it denuding it of almost everything that
moved (or didin't move)that was harvestable. Man-camps of locals set up tarpaulin shade shelters to work, and traveled around the bay as the boats
worked. You can find literally thousands of middens of shells with literally thousands of shells per midden; the middens accessable closer to the
highway have been hauled into Mulege to landscape yards and driveways, but a little bumping up the peninsula will show you HUGE piles, one after
another, all the way to the northern tip. The quantities are staggering.
Like Easter Island, that used to be a lush tropical 'paradise' island, it got over-populated and denuded of all forestry, and never recovered even
after 400 years or more. Unfortunately, the bay is the same. There is a 'no commercial fishing' moratorium on the bay, but is still heavily fished
by locals trying to survive. Two years ago even the Callos de Acha and Ancha fishing (that is regulated and licensed for harvest) was over-fished and
stripped too heavily due to a better-than-average crop of scallops, and the entire bay was closed for the whole year/season, and locals were paid by
the Gov't to be 'vigilancias' and watch for any poaching, being a reward for turning in any.
It truly is (to me) the most beautiful place in Baja, and there's a few triggers to catch and the usual takes of bass, etc. In the spring the
Roosters run, and a friend latched a 50 lb. Dog Snapper a few years back... that used to be a normal occurance until the Big Drag. Stories abounded
about them around Pta. Armenta. Now it's a rareity. I was fortunate to know an old colorful local that ran Playa La Perla, long gone now, but his
stories still remain with me. I miss him, and it. My heart will always reside there. |