Cabo Pulmo Is a Pearl in Sea of Cortez

There’s a sprawling blue bay about 20 miles south of this small Baja California town, a haven for colorful creatures both wild and wonderful.

Tourists from as far north as La Paz and as far south as Cabo San Lucas are brought there to swim among the creatures and to marvel at what a little protection can do for an ecosystem.

On a recent boat trip to Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park, with Mark Rayor of Vista Sea Sport (www.vistaseasport.com) in nearby Buena Vista, a group of divers took the backward plunge over the rail and followed the sun’s rays down, only to find that rays of a different sort were following them.

They were bat rays, about 10 of them, shy but curious, hovering in the distant haze like alien space vessels suspended in flight. They watched the bubble-blowing intruders for only a few moments, then turned as one and, with a few flaps of their wing-like fins, blended back into their shadowy surroundings.

The divers continued downward to about 45 feet, to a coral floor teeming with reef fish and harboring dozens of green morays, holed up in their classic ambush position, champing at water as they waited for something more substantial to pass.

Most amazing, though, were giant groupers, some measuring five feet and weighing more than 200 pounds. They were encountered at almost every turn, poised almost motionless just above the reef, pointed in various directions as if on sentry duty, which, in a way, they were.

After the dive, Rayor and John Ireland, owner of Rancho Leonero Resort (www.rancholeonero.com), explained that these magnificent behemoths, so powerful and yet so vulnerable to fishing pressure, had all but disappeared before the establishment of the reserve in 1995, an area 10 miles long and extending three miles out where neither commercial fishing nor sportfishing is allowed.

Now the groupers are back, as are many other species of fish that have taken up residence in the reserve, which features nearly a dozen dive sites and boasts visibility ranging from 30 to 80 feet.

Even more remarkable than the comeback of the groupers, Rayor said, is the seasonal presence of hammerhead sharks.

“We never used to see them, and now we’re seeing more and more. In fact, they’re starting to become predictable,” he said.

This at a time when sightings of schooling sharks at other Sea of Cortez dive sites, such as El Bajo to the north and Gordo Banks to the south, are occurring less frequently. Sharks are among many embattled sea creatures in the Sea of Cortez, victims of overfishing and the indiscriminate nature of gillnets and long-line gear.

“It used to be that Cabo Pulmo was not any more special than any of the other dive sites we go to because there were fish everywhere,” Rayor said. “But that’s not the case anymore. Cabo Pulmo has become the main event.”

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Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park is home to the only living coral reef in the Sea of Cortez and the only substantial living reef on the west coast of North America. As such, it is a special place worthy of protection.

Mexico deserves credit for recognizing this. But the local hotel owners, their captains and crews, and the dive community, deserve as much credit for helping to make the marine park flourish instead of founder, as one up the gulf in Loreto seems to be doing.

Those on the fishing boats and dive boats are the watchdogs and caretakers.

“I’ve personally pulled up nets and turned them in to authorities,” Ireland said. “I’ve done it before and will do it again.”

Somewhat surprisingly, local sportfishing leaders, although they squawked initially, have accepted the idea of a no-take zone in their midst. Some even believe it has proved beneficial to the surrounding fishery.

Now they are among the driving forces behind a mounting push to ban gillnets, as was the case 10 years ago in California, when a drive organized largely by sportfishermen led to an initiative that ultimately led to the banning of gillnets in coastal and island waters.

This kind of conservation ethic, not something for which Mexico has been known, is particularly evident in the East Cape, a region spanning about 50 miles from Los Frailies at Cabo Pulmo’s southern edge to El Cardonal, just north of Los Barriles.

Last spring, in response to a public outcry over the deaths of three whales, whose net-mangled bodies had washed ashore, Mexico’s department of fisheries outlawed gillnets in East Cape waters.

“Now the whole area is kind of like a marine park, and whoever tries to do something illegal is in deep [trouble],” said Bobby Van Wormer Jr., secretary of tourism for the state of Baja California Sur. “If any citizens witness any poaching, all they have to do is find a couple of policemen with pistols and they’ll stop the boat doing the damage and get an inspector from Cabo [San Lucas] or La Paz and they’ll confiscate the boat.”

That’s easy for Van Wormer to say. His family owns three of the most popular East Cape hotels, among them Palmas de Cortez in Los Barriles, and it wields considerable influence. As a tourism official, Van Wormer says his ultimate goal is to have gillnets banned statewide.

Meanwhile, he points to the turquoise sea and says the ban is paying dividends, particularly in nearshore waters, where prized catch-and-release species such as roosterfish and amberjacks are now prowling without invisible walls of death standing in their way.

“We have the best roosterfish fishing we have ever had going on right now,” Van Wormer boasted. “Our annual roosterfish tournament [two weeks ago at Hotel Punta Colorada] was the best in 37 years. They caught and released 182 roosters in three days, and one guy accounted for 23 in one day.”

Now that’s something to crow about.

News and Notes

* Baja beat: Dustin Lohrman of the Cabo San Lucas dive company Underwater Diversions (www.divecabo.com) on Wednesday said his clients were wearing 6.5-millimeter wetsuits, which is unheard of at Land’s End at this time of year. “The water has dropped to 60 degrees just off the beach,” Lohrman explained. That’s about 20 degrees cooler than normal and it has virtually shut off nearshore fishing. The bizarre phenomenon has also affected East Cape waters. A much warmer band of water exists offshore and it is slowly moving shoreward.

* Southland bite: While albacore anglers out of San Diego continue to bag limits of 12- to 25-pound fish, there is good fishing closer to home. Of note is the arrival of small yellowtail, also called firecrackers, in southern Santa Monica Bay, just in time for the weekend. “They’re small, mostly six-pound fish mixed in with the barracuda, but they’re making things a little more exciting,” said Jeff Jessop, captain of the Redondo Special out of Redondo Sportfishing.

Elsewhere, sand bass remain the prime target off Huntington Flats and Oceanside, while more schools of barracuda are off Dana Point.

* Catch of the week: This week’s winner, hands down, is Patrick Friedman of Torrance, who bagged a 38-pound bluefin during a six-day voyage aboard the Polaris Supreme. It wasn’t the biggest fish, but then neither was Friedman the biggest angler. He is only 7 and has bragging rights over big brother Philip, 11, who reeled in a 37-pound albacore.

* Paddleboarding: The Hennessey’s United States Paddleboard Championships are scheduled July 13 beginning at 7 a.m. at Hermosa Beach Pier. The race, open to anyone 18 or older with a paddleboard and the entry fee of $45, covers 14 miles from the pier to R-10 buoy off the Palos Verdes Peninsula and back. Several other events, among them a luau and raffle, are planned. Details: (310) 316-5652.

* Hunter’s ed: The Department of Fish and Game has announced a free hunter-education course on July 14 at 7 a.m. at its office in Chino Hills. Such courses, which last about 10 hours, are required before purchasing a hunting license. Details: (909) 597-9823.

* Shooting sports: The annual Youth Outdoor Safari Day, a free event sponsored by the Los Angeles and Orange County chapters of Safari Club International, is scheduled July 20 at Mike Raahauge’s Shooting Sports Complex in Norco. Among featured attractions are a BB-gun shooting gallery, nature walks, kayaking and decoy painting. Details: (909) 735-7981.

* Media: South Coast Sportfishing magazine has been sold to Newport Beach publisher Drew Lawler. Former owner and publisher Harvey Hunnicutt will remain as editor.