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Jacques Cousteau called it the world’s aquarium. Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula boasts some of the most unique terrestrial and marine environments in the world. The peninsula's Pacific coastline extends more than 700 miles from the U.S. border south to Cabo San Lucas.
Wedged between the peninsula and the mainland of Mexico is the Gulf of California—better known in the U.S. as the "Sea of Cortez." This region is characterized by rugged coastlines, cardon cactus, sandy beaches, coastal lagoons, coral reefs and palm oases.
This stretch of sea is home to species representing one-third of Earth's marine mammals and samples of more than 80 percent of the aquatic mammals found in the Pacific Ocean, as well as:
• vaquita (harbor porpoise; world's smallest and most threatened aquatic mammal),
• blue, fin, gray and pilot whales,
• loggerhead, leatherback, hawksbill, green and olive ridley sea turtles,
• California sea lions and fur and elephant seals,
• dolphins,
• giant manta rays, hammerhead sharks and whale sharks.
The rocky coasts and sea islands are home to hundreds of resident and migratory birds, including, yellow-footed gulls, brown pelicans, peregrine falcons and great horned owls.
The World's Aquarium
Baja and the Gulf of California are some of the world’s most biodiverse places because of a combination of salt marsh and mangrove wetlands, island archipelagos, eelgrass and algae beds, and the northernmost coral reef in the Eastern Pacific.
Deep ocean trenches and nutrient-rich shallow seabeds make it one of the most important areas in the world for both commercial and sport fishing. The Gulf of California provides more than half the total of Mexican fisheries by volume. Approximately 800 species of fish are found in the Gulf.
Today, this marine world is suffering from over-pollution and insufficient freshwater flows. Unregulated tourism development is threatening the fragile coasts as well as traditional livelihoods of many coastal communities.
Deregulation of the commercial fisheries industry in Mexico has resulted in a steep decline in populations of high quality catches and the targeting of less-desirable fish—those lower on the food chain. This practice robs larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals of food and can endanger the functioning of entire marine ecosystems.
The Nature Conservancy is working to safeguard biodiversity across Baja and the Gulf of California through a combination of land acquisitions, conservation agreements, stewardship programs and community outreach and education.
Gulf of California
The Conservancy is focusing attention on the Gulf of California working with World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The TNC-WWF partnership demonstrates how two institutions, with complementary strengths, can pool resources to conserve land and marine habitat at a pace and scale that make a meaningful difference.
Their focus is making fisheries practices more sustainable by:
(i) promoting incentive-based fisheries management, and
(ii) helping to buy out gillnet fishers in the Upper Gulf to protect the endangered vaquita.
The Conservancy and WWF are also beginning to address coastal development — a significant threat to the gulf, particularly affecting shoreline ecosystems, estuaries and island species.
Baja California Sur
Located 20 miles north of La Paz in Baja California Sur, Isla Espiritu Santo is an uninhabited island of 23,383 acres. When tourism development began to threaten the island, the Conservancy forged a public/private partnership with the Mexican government and other conservation organizations to purchase and permanently protect the Isla Espíritu Santo archipelago.
Dominating the eastern shoreline of Baja California Sur, the Land of the Giants is a two million-acre land and seascape that harbors an array of endemic cactus and plant species. Together with local land trust Niparaja the Conservancy is protecting key coastal properties in the region through land acquisition, the establishment of conservation easements and community development projects.
Loreto Bay Marine Park encompasses coastal and marine areas that are home to almost all marine species found in the Gulf. With local partners, the Conservancy is supporting patrolling efforts in the park and is promoting the establishment and monitoring of no-take zones.
The sky island of Sierra la Laguna has the highest concentration of endemism in the region and is one the most intact ecosystems in Mexico. The Conservancy is working with the Mexican Park Service and academic institutions to:
- develop a fire management plan,
- control invasive species and
- rescue traditional ranching practices in the area.
The Northern Baja Peninsula
The Conservancy is working with partners to protect important places containing mediterranean habitat in Northern Baja California, including San Quintin Bay/El Rosario, Sierra Juarez/San Pedro Mártir and Isla Guadalupe.
San Quintín Bay located on the Pacific coast of Baja California, is the largest and only intact coastal lagoon system in the North America’s Mediterranean zone. To the south of the bay, El Rosario has the southernmost distribution of coastal scrub iand is facing increasing development pressures. With a coalition of partners we have highlighted the ecological importance of the bay via international designations such as RAMSAR and the Western Hemisphere Shore Bird Reserve Network.
Situated in the Pacific Ocean, 150 miles off the coast of
The island has been greatly affected by the spread of invasive species and more than 20 percent of its native plants species are endemic. The Conservancy and its partners are implementing a plan to eradicate non-native species from the island and restore native habitat.
The 12,000-acre Parque Nacional Constitución de 1857 in the Sierra Juárez mountain range and the 180,000-acre Parque Nacional Sierra de San Pedro Mártir are located in the northern part of the peninsula. This area is rich in biodiversity and harbors the threatened bald eagle, California condor and bighorn sheep.
The Conservancy is working with U.S. and Mexican partner organizations to improve park management, secure conservation easements on nearby private properties and develop a conservation plan for the area.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Desert cliffs and rock are softened by lavender light in this dusk view of Isla Espiritu. © B. Evarts; A California sea lion basks on a rock on Isla Guadalupe. © J. Owen.; A whale's tail is visible in a sea of blue as it dives into Pacific waters off the Baja Peninsula, Mexico. © J. Owen.;
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