microorganisms of the Cabo Pulmo reef: “Clinging to
the coral, growing on it, burrowing into it, was a teeming
fauna. Every piece of the soft material broken off
skittered and pulsed with life — little crabs and worms
and snails. One small piece of coral might conceal 30 or
40 species, and the colors on the reef were electric.”
The story of how the Cabo Pulmo National Marine
Park later came into being is almost as inspiring as its
still-teeming waters. “My grandfather came here and
began freediving for pearls when it was a fishing camp,”
said Judith Castro, a respected local leader with dark
hair and a broad, friendly face, and chair of the board of
directors of Amigos para la Conservación de Cabo Pulmo
(ACCP), translated as Friends for the Conservation of
Cabo Pulmo. “Soon it became famous for its quality
pearls. He was the first pearl diver; he built a ranch with
cows and sheep, and he raised corn and vegetables. He
and his sons then became commercial fishermen — there
were about 10 houses by then.”
Her eyes sparkled as she recalled growing up with
her father, Enrique, and brothers Mario, Paco, Kiki
and Milo in the sagebrush and saguaro-cactus fishing
community with its empty azure sky and star-spangled
nights. But soon, as in much of Baja and the world,
the sea bass, snapper and cubera were overfished
and depleted, and the fishermen’s livelihoods were
threatened. “As a teen I’d watch them go out fishing
before sunup and come back near dark without any
fish; that was super sad for me, and they were losing
money because of the cost of ice and gas.” Soon the
men had to spend part of the year away from home,
fishing the Pacific for shrimp and lobster.
“Then in the 1980s, Autonomous University of Baja
California Sur scientists came to study the coral reef
(the only one in the Sea of Cortez) and talked to my
father, uncle and brothers and let them know about
the importance of the reef and gave them dive masks
to see it for themselves. From there it took 10 years to
decide to protect it.”
Castro’s brother Mario became a leader in making
that decision, talking to others in the community
and appealing to the government to create the
no-take reserve. He’s a short, burly and somewhat
taciturn man with dark hair, a mustache, flip-flops,
swim trunks and a tee. “I was the first one from here
certified [as a scuba diver] in 1991,” he said outside the
small office at Cabo Pulmo Sport Center (also known
as Cabo Pulmo Divers), the original of three dive shops
now operating in town. “It’s the only one still run by
Mexicans,” half-grouses his wiry son, David, as he
strips off his wetsuit after leading a dive, exposing his
shoulder tats of a manta ray and other marine life.
“On June 6, 1995, the government created it [the
marine park] and said no fishing, and for the first years
after that it was too hard,” Mario recalled. “We’d have
one, two, three people a week coming to see it. But now
we have a bunch [of divers, kayakers and ecotourists]. I
taught David and my other boys to dive, and we make
a better living than before.” He shows me a picture of
his 8-year-old grandson, David’s boy Jeshua, wearing a
cowboy hat and vest. “Now we teach him to dive,” he
said, his dour face lighting up with a grin.
Across the open beachfront from the dive shop
is the ACCP’s two-story cinderblock office, its
entry decorated by children’s paintings of sea life.
Established in 2003 by Judith, Mario and Canadian
activist Dawn Pier to protect the local sea turtle
population, the environmental group soon expanded
its aim to include protection of the marine park and
community. Today Guatemalan biologist and diver
Paulina Godoy heads the organization’s small staff.
The day I visited, Paulina was feeding her 4-month-old
baby Maya while her 4-year-old son Orion and Judith’s
5-year-old Yerick scampered between the office and
tree-shaded yard, oblivious of the 95-degree heat.
From 2009 to 2012 ACCP fought a protracted battle
against a planned Spanish megaresort just up the
road that was to include 27,000 hotel and condo units
84
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WINTER 2014
ERIC HANAUER
DAVID HELVARG
