January 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 1   What's this?

Showdown in Cabo Pulmo

from the January, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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In one corner are the villagers of this tiny Baja California village near Cabo San Lucas, and an international coalition of environmentalists. In the other are Spanish developers of a mammoth resort planned for the edge of Cabo Pulmo's coral reef, a crucial fisheries breeding ground and a favorite of Undercurrent divers (see our February 2010 travel story).

Since Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park was created 16 years ago, the once-depleted waters are now home to vast schools of spawning big-eyed jacks, huge groupers, tiger sharks and nesting turtles. In August, scientists reported that the biomass of fish in the no-take marine reserve had increased by an unprecedented 463 percent in 10 years. But if the resort is built a few miles to the north, all that good news could disappear, say ecologists, with pollution destroying the reef and its sea life....