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Sharksbaja
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Triumph for Laguna San Ignacio and Cousteau
On a recent scientific research trip Jean-Michel discussed with me his trip(s) to Laguna San Ignacio and his reason for being in Oregon. His team
were tracking a pod of Grey Whales north from the Laguna San Ignacio and were taking on supplies and making quick repairs on a couple of the four
boats .
But he drove (dont know where they got the car) down to 'Sharks' that night from Depoe Bay (smallest in the world) Harbor and treated his crew to a
great meal. Great people at Ocean Futures. The next morning they were off up the coast headed toward Puget Sound. He was at the Olympics a week later
with a torch for the seas!
Here is what he said:
Jean-Michel Cousteau's Statement to Ocean Futures Society Members regarding San Ignacio Lagoon
Jean-Michel Cousteau's Statement to Ocean Futures Society Members regarding San Ignacio Lagoon
Dear Ocean Futures Society Members,
I wish to share with you a wonderful development for conservation of the magnificent Pacific Gray Whale.
Today, I returned from Mexico?s San Ignacio Lagoon -- the only place on Earth where gray whales mate, give birth and take care of their young without
human interference or commercial development. Sadly, the lagoon has also been the site of a massive plan by Mitsubishi and the Mexican Government to
construct the largest salt production facility ever built. This monstrosity would have destroyed 116 square miles and impacted hundreds more square
miles of the Sebastian Viscayano Biosphere Reserve, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Last week, after years of concerted opposition, the Mexican Government and Mitsubishi jointly announced they were abandoning the salt works project.
Those of us in the international environmental community who worked closely on San Ignacio met to celebrate and assess the far-reaching impact this
decision represents.
To me this was a perfect example of how committed people, all working in partnership, can make a difference. No one person or organization could have
achieved this formidable accomplishment alone. Today, the problems are too large and the forces at work to destroy our natural heritage too great for
anything but a team approach.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) took the lead in calling public attention to the threat.
Not only did they rally support for opposition to the project but they worked through the legal and political systems to raise awareness and lobby for
rational management. A coalition of Mexican environmental organizations worked tirelessly to apply pressure inside Mexico. A team of internationally
recognized scientists visited the lagoon and let the world know that, in this case, they believed the value of nature far outweighed the economic
benefits of a commercial salt development. Many other individuals and groups contributed to the effort, each in their own way.
I had the great pleasure of meeting with Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce De Leon, President of Mexico to discuss the project. We had a private meeting and
talked for about 45 minutes, openly discussing the situation in San Ignacio. I shared with him my personal perspectives on the project, its impacts
and the fact that I didn't believe it was either in the best interests of the local people of the region nor the country of Mexico as a whole.
President Zedillo, who is a diver, shared with me his own inclinations and concerns. I was reminded as we spoke how difficult it can be for elected
leaders to reconcile their own feelings and judgments with the pressures and realities of power politics. I was honored and touched to be brought into
his confidence in such a way, but, of course, I will never know what impact this had on the ultimate decision.
I think there are some important lessons for us all in this issue. It demonstrates how the cooperative strategy works. It is like the biodiversity we
are committed to protecting -- we all were different and we each did what we could do best. In the end, our differences were our strengths as each
used different approaches to achieve a common goal.
But conservation is a journey without end. I am not totally convinced this salt works project is dead. And, though the door may have been closed to a
salt works at San Ignacio Lagoon, it is entirely possible that the issue may creep in through the window or slither under the door at some future date
at another pristine natural site!
We humans have much to learn. We are evolutionary infants and are still searching for the appropriate way to live in our house in peaceful coexistence
with our housemates. We cannot destroy the furniture, we need to get along with our neighbors and if we make a mess we need to clean it up. We are
doing some things right and we must pay attention to what works, learn from the good examples and replicate or adapt them to new situations.
So I was a happy celebrant these last two days applauding all who worked so hard. I personally was celebrating two things -- the protection of San
Ignacio Lagoon and, of possibly equal importance, the lesson we all learned about the value and effectiveness of teamwork and collaboration.
Jean-Michel Cousteau
President, Ocean Futures Society
http://www.oceanfutures.org
From us at Sharks:
Thank you Mr. Cousteau and crew from all us here at Sharks for your unrelenting presence and concern for the Worlds Oceans. Looking forward to seeing
u again. Your friends, Corky & Karen aka Sharks www.sharksseafood.com
might have to ease up on the French now...........................naw
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aldosalato
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A dissent opinion
Producing salt with sea water, salt and wind is one the most environmentally friendly activity that humans can do.
And you get also good paying jobs too.............
Sorry to say but environmentalists got it wrong in San Ignacio.
A lot of money was spent in the area to stop a project that would have helped the environment and the local community most in future years.
Artificial salt lagoon marshes used by ESSA in Guerrero Negro are the best environment for migratory birds. Grey whales are still much more in Laguna
Ojo de Liebre than San Ignacio.
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Bruce R Leech
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Sorry to say but I sorta agree with both of the above statements. we need the whales, and we also need the industry here in Mulege county. the
environmentalists and the Mexican government need to learn to look at the whole picture. and spend there time and money figuring out how to do a
project with minimal impact to the surrounding environment. un fortunately people are her to stay. and they need to eat and support there family's.
people come from all over the world to tell these people here that they cant work because they have there agenda or there mission. they do tuns of
research on the whales but none on the impact to the local economy and people.
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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Ken Bondy
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If my memory serves me (it often doesn't these days) the decision to not build the Mitsubishi salt plant in Laguna San Ignacio was made several years
ago. I also recall that the major environmental complaint was not the distillation of the salt itself, but the construction of a very long pier at
the mouth of the lagoon which, it was argued, would interfere with the whale's passage into and out of the lagoon.
++Ken++
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wilderone
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There's not enough salt already produced in Laguna ojo de Liebre for the JAPANESE company's profits? Why does Baja Ca. Sur want to give their land
away to the Japanese? There weren't jobs before, so there's really no impact on that issue. Why don't the Mexicans demand more from their government
which would produce jobs for road maintenance, water and sewer upgrades, waste disposal and recycling plants, etc. Kuyima has a nice business - why
not something similar run by Mexicans? Tamales, fish, tortillas, fruit, beer, vegetable stand for sale en route. A little palapa bar gathering place
(like Jamaica - they're set up in the middle of a vacant lot - lots of fun). There was the most charming restaurant at Scammons a few years ago
(replaced by the more imposing, but not so charming structure that is there now). They served fresh fish, and had no electricity. Cooked on propane
and tables had candle light. An evening I'll never forget. Be creative. Bahia San Ignacio is totally unique and should be valued and protected for
that. There's more to the analysis than $$$$.
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Barry A.
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Who is the President of Mexico????
From the lead post, "Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, President of Mexico"-----??? Last time I checked, Vincente Fox was the President of
Mexico------what's going on here??? Did I miss something?? Barry
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Ken Bondy
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As I said...
this happened a long time ago.
++Ken++
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Hook
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You didn't miss anything, Barry.....
....this original post is really old info. Mitsubishi cancelled this project years ago, as both Ken and I recall.
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Barry A.
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Thanks, Ken and Hook
I thought that name "Zedillo" rang a bell, somewhere in the cobwebs of my mind. I wonder why this was posted NOW? Strange. Thanks again. Barry
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osoflojo
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Thanks Ken and Hook
I thought I was caught in a Baja time wharp.............
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bajagrouper
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"Today, I returned from Mexico?s San Ignacio Lagoon -- the only place on Earth where gray whales mate, give birth and take care of their young without
human interference or commercial development."I guess nobody told Jack about GN or Magdaleina Bay...
I hear the whales song
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Sharksbaja
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Time warp, si. End o story, maybe no.
Since I wasn't clear on the time-line of the events surrounding the proposed salt flats.
Some interesting spin.....
from earthisland.org:
Mitsubishi & Mexican Government Industrial Salt Project will Sacrifice Gray Whales for Profits!
Twice hunted to near extinction by commercial whalers, gray whales have slowly come back from the brink. This recovery is a result of five decades of
protective stewardship and cooperation by US, Mexican and Canadian groups and individuals. While many people on the Pacific Coast refer to this
species as the "California" gray, these migratory whales are in fact born in the Mexican lagoons of the Baja Peninsula. It is here where the gray
whale species is again menaced in a plan to destroy their most pristine breeding habitat, the Laguna San Ignacio.
The salt export company Exportadora de Sal (ESSA), jointly owned by Mitsubishi Corporation (49%) and the Mexican government (51%), is planning to
expand salt mining operations in the Vizcaino Desert Reserve, a United Nation's Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site. Specifically, this project
would devastate the lagoon, estuary's and flats which comprise the area known as Laguna San Ignacio. This lagoon is the only unspoiled of three
remaining bays where migrating gray whales spend their winter months. This fragile breeding and calving environment and its vicinity are also home to
sea turtles, dolphins, the endangered pronghorn antelope, mountain lions, coyotes, peregrine falcons, golden eagles, black brant geese, osprey, and
blue-wing teals. Scallop, clam, lobster and abalone fisheries help sustain the small resident community. In Mitsubishi/ESSA project's initial
environmental impact assessment Exportadora de Sal claims that no damage to the lagoon and surrounding area would occur because the companies
considered the site to be "wastelands with little biodiversity and no known productive use."
This Mitsubishi/ESSA project would sacrifice 21,000 acres of protected land surrounding the lagoon for an industrial complex. Plans call for the
construction of a mile-long pier, located 12 miles from mouth of the lagoon, to facilitate a rotating flotilla of ocean-going ships. Operation of the
saltworks will demand the nonstop pumping of water from the lagoon at the rate of 6,600 gallons per second, adversely altering the lagoon's
temperature and salinity. The surrounding network of roads needed to service the saltworks would, by ESSA's own admission, have a permanent impact on
the entire 86,000 acres of the reserve.
Temporary Stay of Execution
In 1995, the National Ecology Institute of Mexico, the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, halted this project when it
rejected the environmental impact assessment (EIA) submitted by ESSA. The rejection cited the saltworks' incompatibility with the area's designation
as a U.N. biosphere reserve and its proximity to the lagoon. It should also be noted that in the 465-page EIA, only 23 lines were devoted to gray
whales. Stopping the project and the EIA in 1995 was largely a result of pressure from the Mexican environmental organization Grupo de los Cien (Group
of 100), with support from the international community. Immediately following that decision, Juan Ignacio Bremer, director of Expota de Sal and
coincidentally Mexico's Secretary of Commerce, filed an appeal with the Mexican government. Now Mitsubishi and ESSA are redrafting a new EIA and hope
to form a "blue ribbon panel of world renowned scientists" to help the salt mine project gain approval when resubmitted before the National Ecology
Institute in the Spring of 1999.
The Cornucopia of Spoilage
Pollution and ship traffic from a similar ESSA salt operation in neighboring Guerrero Negro has in the space of thirty years destroyed the ecological
balance of a place once as pristine and unspoiled as San Ignacio. The gray whales no longer visit Guerrero Negro lagoon and have moved to the safety
of Scammons Bay to the south. Given that the new Mitsubishi/ESSA project in San Ignacio will be twice as large as the one at Guerrero Negro, there is
serious concern that the gray whales will suffer tremendously from habitat degradation. The Guerrero Negro salt works has created low-paying jobs, not
prosperity, for the populace there. Equally as important as the survival of the lagoon and the gray whales is the livelihoods of people who live in
San Ignacio. The local population relies almost exclusively on small-scale fishing and the tourism generated by people coming to see the gray whales.
As the Mitsubishi/ESSA project alters and degrades the lagoon, the potential collapse of the already overtaxed subsistence fisheries and the
disappearance of the gray whales will irreparably end the locals ability to earn a living by fishing and tourism. San Ignacio residents cherish thier
presently unspoiled way of life. Those of us working to stop the ESSA salt project in San Ignacio believe that recognizing the needs of the local
people is tantamount. By rejecting the Mitsubishi/ESSA promise of economic gain that will result from sacrificing nature, the local people can choose
an alternative path and continue their heritage as the gray whales and San Ignacio's traditional guardians. A continuing interdependence between
habitat preservation, gray whales and the local people's unindustrialized way of life makes San Ignacio a truly "sustainable" model of economic and
environmental health.
WHAT, no more whales at Scammons????
c'mon u gotta be kidding.
big corps are like the IRS,they never forget
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Bruce R Leech
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just another example of the Rich people to the north trying to keep people here poor.
they should try to clean up there one back yard first.
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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ursidae69
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Bruce R Leech
just another example of the Rich people to the north trying to keep people here poor.
they should try to clean up there one back yard first. |
I agree with your sentiment that we need to take into account the locals' needs in addition to the environmental concerns, but blaming the rick for
keeping the poor poor is not right. The fact is, the rich western corporations won't build the same salt operation in the US because of environmental
policies so they take advantage of the poor's inability to fight for their right for a clean environment. The environmentalists are looking out for
the locals, not keeping them poor.
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BajaVida
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or screw up someone else's back yard because we can't do it here
we need to reduce out salt intake anyway
No se apure y dure.
Don\'t hurry and you\'ll last longer.
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Bruce R Leech
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Look at all the industry in every state in the U.S. in this county we have 1 main industry salt is 92 percent of the GNP here. and now people from
there are telling us we cant have that. do you really think there is not a way that we can produce salt and still preserve the habitat for whales? the
problem is no one wants to compromise.
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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bajalera
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I thought the hero of the Mitsubishi turn-about was a scientist named Serge Somebody-or-Other, who wrote a cool little book about the experience (an
inexpensive addition to the library of any bajaficionado).
bajalera
\"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest never happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.\" -
Mark Twain
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edevart
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Old news, yet misperceptions persist. Actually, the five year anniversary of the defeat of the Mitsubishi/Mexican Gov't salt works is this year
(2005). So this is a five year old story. To clarify a few things...
The salt works would have included a mile long pier off of Punta Abreojos, the pumping of millions of gallons of salt water from the lagoon, and
constant ship and tanker traffic to get the salt off the penninsula. And the jobs?... well those would have gone to imported, "skilled" Japanese
workers, the same ones that have a large percentage of the jobs at the existing salt works.
The community at Guerrero Negro were promised paved roads, better schools, and improved infrastructure the FIRST TIME that ESSA came to the area.
Have you been to Guerrero Negro lately? I have and I failed to see paved roads, improved infrastructure, or better, newer schools. The citizens of
GN realize they were duped once, and five years ago they fought and won so that they wouldn't be duped again.
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TMW
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Edevart which end of GN did you go to. The west end is a lot better than the east end. As far as jobs go there are a lot more Mexicans employed with
the salt works than Japanese, including Cedros Island where it's loaded on the ships. The Japanese are management people.
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rts551
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personally I would not liked to have seen Abreojos become another GN. The impact as stated before was not to the Lagoon but there were a lot of
plans for the surrounding area with jobs paying less than the current fishing and related industry pays. Then again maybe we aught to develop the
whole coast.
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