Global Conservation Deploys Global Park Defense to Protect Cabo Pulmo UNESCO World Heritage Site

Last week, the Anthropocene Institute (AI) deployed the Marine Monitor (M2) system in Cabo Pulmo World Heritage Site, Mexico. ProNatura staff and Cabo Pulmo residents, Junior Mcdonough and Ben Large, were critical in making this deployment a reality. Without their work on the ground in La Paz and Cabo Pulmo, this deployment would not have been possible.

Global Conservation and AI are working with ProNatura Mexico to deploy Marine Monitor (M2) radar systems, long-range cameras, UAV Drones and SMART Patrols to protect one of Mexico’s most important Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) – Cabo Pulmo in Baja California.

AI trained key people in the operation and maintenance of the M2 system, including staff from ProNatura and the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP, the National Commision on Natural Protected Areas). ProNatura, specifically Alejandro Torres, has a very good understanding of the system and was critical in training CONANP staff on its use.

We are very pleased with CONANP's enthusiasm and interest in the technology, and are hopeful that they will start using the technology for increased enforcement across all of Mexico’s endangered MPAs.

As the number of MPAs continue to increase globally, it is vital that marine managers monitor vessel activity within and around MPAs. Unfortunately, marine managers frequently have limited financial and human resources to monitor MPAs, making it difficult to effectively manage such areas. Military radar systems for monitoring marine activity exist, but cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, well outside the financial resources available to marine managers.

Global Conservation is also supporting next-generation industrial design and engineering for a new hardened, off-grid Mobile Marine Monitor (M3) trailer system which can be shipped in standard containers anywhere in the world. 

New software development and hardware integration work includes direct control and monitoring of endangered MPAs using video surveillance cameras and unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs). Photo courtesy of FlightWave.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the Mexican Navy teamed up to stop illegal fishermen in the Gulf of California in December 2016.

Cabo Pulmo: A Conservation Success Story

Cabo Pulmo National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage marine park on the east coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, spanning 100km between Pulmo Point and Los Frailes Cape. Cabo Pulmo and its coral reefs have over 891 fish species, 90 of them endemic and contains 39% of the world’s total number of species of marine mammals and a third of the world’s marine cetacean species.

Once famously dubbed the "Aquarium of the World", it is recognized as an area of global marine conservation significance. The rugged islands and coastal desert contrast strikingly with the surrounding turquoise waters.

The Gulf of California is a global conservation gem, invaluable to science and an important resource for local economic development, namely fisheries and tourism. Investing in the Cabo Pulmo’s protection and conservation is an investment in the maintenance of its fishery productivity and economic potential for local communities.

At its founding, an impressive 35% of Cabo Pulmo National Park was preserved as no-fishing areas. After further determined action by local families, the entire park was designated a no-fishing zone. Thanks to the community’s efforts, this once-barren reef is now recognized as an area of global marine conservation significance. In fact, Cabo Pulmo National Park has been called the most successful MPA in the world, with fish and other wildlife increasing nearly 500% since its establishment. Cabo Pulmo is now protected and managed by the National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) in partnership with the local community and NGO ProNatura Noreste.

Now the challenge is to protect it from increasing pressure as other fisheries in the Gulf of California decline. The famous vaquita dolphin, for example, is now nearly extinct due to fishing for gall bladder of the totoaba, a fish dried and sold on the black market in China.

About Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park

Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park (UNESCO World Heritage) is located just 60 miles north of Baja’s tourism epicenter, Los Cabos. This jewel of the East Cape region of Baja California Sur is surrounded by undeveloped desert and a stunning mountain range, the pristine beaches of Cabo Pulmo Park give way to a shallow bay that cradles one of three living reefs (the only hard coral reef) in North America.

Over the past 10 years, the park has endured pressures from commercial fishing and abuse from visitors that are simply unaware or uneducated. Additionally, in a region where the locals live on the seafood they catch by hand, enforcing a ban on fishing presents a challenge. Illegal fishing by both sport and commercial fishermen have potential to cause damage to Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park.

The rich biodiversity of the area is unparalleled, and as a result, the area was targeted by overzealous sport and commercial fisherman during the 1980’s. Abusive over-fishing and a tremendous decline in fish populations caused great concern in the local community, who subsequently lobbied the government to protect the region. Moreover, a series of studies at UABCS were directed by lead biologist Oscar Arizpe to provide strong evidence supporting the biological relevance of Cabo Pulmo to the Sea of Cortez. On June 15, 1995 President Zedillo Ponce de Leon declared the 7,111 hectares of Cabo Pulmo a National Marine Park.

Predatory sharks, massive rays, humpback whales, sea turtles and ospreys are among the many species that now rely on Cabo Pulmo for reproduction, feeding and habitat. The reef has even become a refuge for large and valuable gulf grouper, an endangered species on the IUCN Red List.

Cabo Pulmo is part of the Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California World Heritage Site, listed in 2005. The site is important for its diversity of oceanographic processes, including wind- and current-driven upwelling, tidal mixing, and hydrothermal vents - all of which contribute to its extraordinary biological diversity. There are 890 fish species (90 of which occur nowhere else), 34 kinds of whales and dolphins, 25 species of coral, over 4,800 invertebrates, the poisonous yellow-bellied sea snake, and 90% of the world's Heermann's gulls. Within the site are breeding and nursery grounds for 30,000 California sea lions, as well as feeding and wintering grounds for five of the world's eight species of marine turtles.

Underwater Photos by Octavio Alburto, Scripps Institute. Marine Monitor photos by Brendan Tougher, Anthropocene Institute.