San Ignacio Lagoon is a breathtakingly beautiful place that has remained virtually untouched by modern society. The area hosts a variety of plants and wildlife, many of which are threatened or endangered, including the California gray whale, dolphins, sea turtles, ospreys, peregrine falcons, Brandt geese, golden eagles, pronghorn antelope, coyotes, mountain lions and North America's southernmost mangrove forests. There are no paved roads, no electricity, no plumbing, no TV, no human developments of any kind with the exception of a few small fishing and eco-tourism camps. For these reasons, San Ignacio was designated an United Nations World Heritage Site and Whale Sanctuary under a treaty ratified by 159 countries including Mexico and Japan. This imparts the same international protection to San Ignacio Lagoon as that upheld at the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef and the Egyptian pyramids.
Every winter thousands of gray whales swim over 5,000 miles from the Bering Sea to the warm salty lagoon waters of San Ignacio. Within weeks, these sheltered lagoons are teeming with playful one-ton newborns. Gray whale mothers have been visiting these lagoons since time immemorial for two reasons: The warm lagoon waters help the infant whales retain precious heat, and the high salinity buoys up the newborns, allowing them to learn to swim more easily. San Ignacio is the only one of Baja's three lagoon nurseries that remains undisturbed.
In 1988, the Mexican government designated the lagoon and surrounding area part of Latin America's largest biosphere reserve, named El Viscaino. In 1994, the gray whale was officially removed from the endangered species list. That same year, the Mexican Ministry of Trade and Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation (through a joint venture known as Exportar de Sal, S.A. or ESSA) proposed building the world's largest salt plant right in the heart of San Ignacio Lagoon. The plan calls for 116 square miles of evaporation ponds to be constructed out of the surrounding terrain. Salt from the lagoon will be sold around the world for use in making PVC plastics, chemicals, chlorine, gas and road salt. ESSA's initial proposal was turned down by Mexico's Ministry of the Environment in 1995 because the project met neither Mexico's own environmental laws nor the standards established under the United Nations treaty.
In 1996, Mexico changed its environmental laws making it easier for a revised salt plant proposal to pass. In October 1997, Mitsubishi announced it had redesigned the salt plant to address environmental concerns and that a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) would be done by an international scientific panel, requiring an estimated 18 months to complete. The original 465-page Environmental Impacts Assessment devoted only 23 lines to the gray whale population. ESSA is using its existing salt plant in the El Viscaino Biosphere Reserve as justification for building another plant within its boundaries. But when the existing plant was built, there was no biosphere reserve and no United Nations treaty. That plant has drastically altered the lagoon, which can be easily surmised by visiting it.
By ESSA's own admission, the proposed salt plant would sacrifice over 100,000 acres of land for the network of roads and buildings alone. Fourteen giant, loud diesel engines would pump over 6,000 gallons of water out of the lagoon every second to flood over 100 square miles of surrounding land. This would adversely alter the lagoon's temperature and salinity while flooding mangrove forests and the desert ecosystem. A mile-long pier would be built in a prime abalone and lobster fishery to accommodate the super-sized diesel tankers and cargo ships, greatly limiting the gray whales' movement in a prime mating area. At least six of these huge ships would come to the site each month, creating the risk of diesel fuel spills, bilge water contamination and collision with the whales. Toxic by-products, along with the waste water from cleaning the salt, would be dumped directly back into the lagoon. Just the exhaust alone from the diesel pumps, heavy machinery, and huge trucks and ships would have an impact on this fragile ecosystem. In short, this United Nations World Heritage Site and Whale Sanctuary would be forever altered, turning it into yet another ugly, polluting, industrial complex.
We simply cannot allow this to happen. The guidelines outlined by the United Nations treaty pertaining to commercial development within a United Nations World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve are straightforward. First, the development must be a conservation activity; it must maintain cultural values; it must come from or aid the local community; and it must protect the core of the World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve. The proposed salt plant fails to meet these criteria, which leaves only one course of action: Mexico and Japan should withdraw their proposal while honoring the United Nations treaty they signed. It's that simple.
Here's what you can do:
Tell Mitsubishi you will boycott its products unless it withdraws the proposal. Tell Mitsubishi and the Mexican government that we as world citizens will not permit the destruction of a World Heritage Site and Whale Sanctuary because of greed and shortsightedness. Tell the Mexican government to preserve and protect San Ignacio Lagoon by honoring its commitment to forever keep this lagoon off-limits to commercial development and exploitation, otherwise you will spend your travel dollars elsewhere.
Send your letters or postcards to Mr. Motohiko Numaguchi, president, Mitsubishi International Corporation, 520 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022-4223; (212) 605-2000 and Mr. Hermino Blanco, SECOFI, c/o Embassy of Mexico, 1911 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006; (213) 351-6820.
Contact the Whaleman Foundation for more information at POB 1670, Lahaina, HI 96767; (808) 661-8859; whaleman@maui.net, http://www. whaleman.org.