After weaving our way on a wet and wild Zodiac adventure into the lagoon, we were rewarded with the presence of dozens of gray whales. Most of the animals observed were cow/calf pairs that will be departing for their long journey north soon, sometime in April. As we watched all kinds of behaviors, from rolling and spyhopping to motherly care of the young, royal terns passed in the air on long slender white wings, uttering their distinctive cries. Their sudden dives for fish were a reminder of the productivity and myriad values beyond the remarkable gray whales of San Ignacio Lagoon.
Laguna San Ignacio is a part of the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, a Natural Protected Area in the Mexican system of preserving the natural values of her enormously rich and diverse landscapes spanning the length of Mesoamerica. Yet in the past six years its integrity was under siege from a plan to expand a saltworks, owned by Mitsubishi and Exportadora de Sal. This proposal had environmental, social and economic implications and many mixed interests. An environmental assessment of the industrial plan was made and put before the Mexican government. With the efforts of a great international movement to protect the natural values of this cradle of calving gray whales, and ultimately with President Ernesto Zedillo's decision to protect the total "landscape", the industrial interests were defeated.
We felt deeply privileged to be able to enter this realm of the gray whale, and touched to know that the Mexican government, in favor of all its inhabitants, has made the protection of this essential part of the gray whales' habitat a national priority and value.
