Locals More Hostile Than Grateful About Mexico’s Plans for Marina

In 37 years of fishing, Guillermo “Memo” Smith has learned the ways of these waters.

For example, he said, if you want to be sure of a good halibut catch in the future, you learn to avoid the shallows when the fish come to spawn.

It is just such knowledge that has led him to question the wisdom of the Mexican government’s plan to develop this aquamarine bay in the Sea of Cortes.

“I don’t understand how the government can dredge a place like this. It’s so important for the ecology and the economy,” said Smith, his hand at the tiller of his 24-foot skiff. “The boats are going to throw diesel and oil and all of the bathroom waste. This is not a place they should do a marina.”

The fertile waters of this bay, and its town of 800, are in the path of a $1.9-billion project to build or expand 24 ports in and around the Baja peninsula.

But many locals seem downright hostile--rather than grateful--that the government is proposing this as a spot for an 1,800-slip marina.

It is perhaps not surprising that someone like Antonio Resendiz, a noted sea turtle researcher for the government, opposes a big marina in a bay that has not a single boat dock. He has spent 22 years studying juvenile sea turtles that grow up here, fattening themselves on sea grasses and algae before paddling to the Pacific to mate and lay their eggs.

“If the water here gets polluted and crowded and noisy, the turtles will leave,” he said.

Yet opponents also include Guillermo Galvan, a successful businessman who might stand to profit from extra tourism at his hotel and restaurant complex.

“You know how Ensenada is?” he said. “You cannot enjoy the beach anymore.” In the 1990s, Ensenada turned its most popular beach for local families into a new marina for U.S. yacht owners.

Serge Dedina, co-director of the U.S. conservation group WildCoast, said he understands local concerns. He has spent 15 months here working to establish a 1.1-million-acre national marine park that would protect these waters from dredging, gill nets and other destructive practices. Local fishermen would be in charge of enforcement.

Dedina said dredging the bay and building a marina isn’t compatible with a national park designed to boost ecotourism and sustainable fishing.

“It’s centralized state tourism planning, the way you would find it in the old Soviet Union,” he said. “Bad planning. No knowledge of Baja and no understanding of the American tourist market.”

Smith knows American tourists. Dollars he earns as a guide to anglers and tourists supplement the living he cobbles together as a lighthouse tender and part-time fisherman.

In making his rounds recently, Smith guided his skiff, or panga, over an inlet protected by a long sandbar. Schools of mackerel and sardine darted through the clear waters. Puffer fish and rays glided across the bottom, offering a glimpse of why the late oceanographer Jacques Cousteau called this sea “the aquarium of the world.”

This is where the halibut spawn, Smith said. It’s where he helps sports fishermen net baitfish before they head for deeper water. The inlet is adjacent to sea turtle feeding grounds and not far from where Smith takes some of his more adventurous clients to snorkel alongside 30-foot gape-mouthed whale sharks gorging on plankton.

It’s also the place designated by federal permit for dredging a harbor. “I work here in my small boat,” Smith said. “They are going to come in with boats and displace me.”

In two days of quizzing locals, only one unabashed supporter turned up. Rene Soberanes is the appointed delegate to the town from the local government in Ensenada. “I’m one of those who think you should sacrifice a little bit of nature to bring economic benefit to the town.”