Ray of hope glints off Sea of Cortez's troubled waters

Murrieta, director of Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park near the tip of the Baja Peninsula in the Sea of Cortez, has not received a paycheck in two years. His office is a kitchen table in his home. There is no expense account, no retirement fund. But there are temptations.

"I have the opportunity right now to get paid by people doing illegal things, illegal fishing," he said. "They have offered me money. They have offered me fish.

Pepe Murrieta, director of the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park, is unpaid -- for two years -- and unbowed.

"They have offered me other things as long as I let them fish in the park. And I say "No way.' I care about this place. I want to do the right thing."

A day's drive north, 1 Benito Bermudez leans back in a chair and sips a soft drink. Four times in 16 months, Bermudez -- director of Bahía de Loreto National Park -- has arrested commercial shrimp boats from mainland Mexico in the protected waters of the park. Tons of shrimp have been confiscated and fines of $10,000 to $20,000 per boat have been assessed.

"People here believe in what I am doing," Bermudez said. "They are cynical about the federal government. They are cynical about the military. But they believe in the national park."

What's happening at Cabo Pulmo and Loreto is more than the dawn of marine conservation in an extraordinary though much-abused sea. It is more than the delegation of environmental decision-making from Mexico City to rural areas. It is the triumph of courage and conviction, the leafing out of promise from the shadow of plunder and despair.

Frustrated by decades of overfishing and mismanagement, people in this part of Mexico are making a stand for the Sea of Cortez. They are calling for tougher law enforcement, more integrity in government and greater local control over the region's galaxy of marine resources.

Stretching for 700 miles from Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlán in the south to the Colorado River Delta in the north, the Sea of Cortez -- also known as the Gulf of California -- is home to more than 900 species of fish and marine mammals, one of the richest displays of marine biodiversity on Earth.

Concern for its well-being is not new. What is new is the array of forces, including government officials, taking an interest in the sea's fate.

Last year, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo asked governors of four states bordering the Sea of Cortez to prepare a plan for the regional, long-term use of its resources, a move that shifts attention from economic exploitation to environmental protection and loosens the federal government's historic control over the region.

"That was beautiful," said Fernando Arcas Saiz, a Loreto fishing guide and director of Antares, a conservation group. "That's a start."

Local and state officials are clamoring for change, too. Leonel Montano, the governor of Baja California Sur -- home to the sea's most popular tourist resorts -- wants to rejuvenate marine life by banning commercial fishing boats from mainland Mexico.

"Simply put, management of the Sea of Cortez has not been a priority," said Montano in an interview with The Bee.

There are other encouraging signs, including:

At Bahia Concepción -- the largest bay in the Sea of Cortez -- residents recently formed a new group, "Mulegé Alerta," 2 to safeguard the coast from poaching, promote marine conservation and work for local control over fish and shellfish.

In December, a coalition of conservation groups from six Mexican states met in the mainland state of Sonora to map out, for the first time, a regional vision for the management of the Sea of Cortez.

Financial assistance from California and the United States continues to work wonders. At Loreto, the Nature Conservancy, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and Vagabundos Del Mar Boat and Travel Club, based in Rio Vista, have helped establish a marine museum.

"Things are happening," said Gloria Jones, a board member of Vagabundos del Mar. "Maybe this is the beginning of a new era."

Still, problems remain.

"Law enforcement is not a reality. Social and economic pressures have increased. There is more pressure to deplete what are already severely reduced numbers of commercial species," said Enrique Hambleton, a La Paz soft drink bottler and member of Pronatura, a Mexican conservation group.

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"What's needed are alternative sources of income for people who are desperately trying to make a living," Hambleton said. "That's not easily done. And it's not done overnight."

Drug-running is another curse.

"There are many ways to move drugs and one is by the Sea of Cortez," said Bermudez, Loreto's park director. "Just the other day, authorities captured four pangas (small boats), close to La Paz, with marijuana. The problem is real."

On some occasions, smugglers use a cyanide-based dye (to mark drug drop-off locations) that has killed marine mammals and other sea life, Bermudez said.

And commercial boats from mainland Mexico -- where fish stocks are depleted -- continue to prowl the Baja coast, fishing legally and illegally and sparking territorial conflict.

"The government does not have control of the illegal fishing," said Alejandro Flores Carballo, manager of the Hotel Punta Colorada on Baja's East Cape between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. "We see too many wrong things on the ocean.

"Last year, some guys with gill nets from Sinaloa on the mainland caught 2 tons of fish just in one day here. Lots of little baby fish, too. We have pictures. They cleaned out everything," Carballo said.

"They are massacring even the smallest species," said Robert Van Wormer, owner of Hotel Punta Colorada. "It's the nets. They are turning this part of the sea into a graveyard. And government is not doing a thing."

But that may change. Gov. Montano -- the first opposition party member ever elected in Baja California Sur -- said he favors state sovereignty over marine resources in the Sea of Cortez. The idea, he said, is to protect Baja Sur's renowned sport fishing as well as its small-scale fishermen.

"My position is no more commercial fishing permits should be issued to people who are not from Baja California Sur," said Montano. "We have the authority, the capacity to do this."

Others share the sentiment, including Alfredo Porras Domingues, mayor of La Paz, capital of Baja Sur.

"As mayor I will try to prevent foreign boats from coming into the bay," Domingues said. "In that way, we will preserve the fishing for the local people."

The desire for self-control is part of a broader democratization movement sweeping Mexico.

In the Sea of Cortez it first surfaced at Loreto where earlier this decade, fishermen rebelled against commercial shrimp boats from the mainland that were over-fishing the area. In 1996, President Zedillo declared the bay a national park, banning shrimp trawlers and giving local fishermen proprietary use of the region. (Sport fishing is also allowed.)

"More and more rural groups in Mexico are demanding sovereignty over natural resources," said Exequiel Ezcurra, from 1992-94 the director general of natural resources at Mexico's National Institute of Ecology, one of the government's top conservation posts.

"Loreto is a beautiful example. The fisheries authorities in Mexico wanted nothing to do with it. They were concerned that if Loreto succeeded, other fishermen would want to become custodians of their own resources. And that was completely unacceptable to the big fishing industry, which is tied very closely to the fishing authorities."

At Loreto, anger has turned to exhilaration as Bermudez -- with armed federal marines at his side -- seizes invading shrimp boats.

"One night we caught two," Bermudez said. "It was spectacular!"

"We are winning the battle against the shrimp trawlers," said Arcas. "This is just the beginning. There is hope for the future."

Resolving territorial disputes is one thing. Stopping corruption is a larger challenge.

"Outside this park, it is a no-man's-land," Bermudez said. "Regulations have no meaning. Enforcement does not exist. Between San Bruno and Mulegé, north of here, there is terrible corruption. Many people are using spear guns illegally. They give money to the authorities. I know this. I do not suppose it."

Before coming to Loreto at the end of 1996, Bermudez was deputy director for fisheries enforcement in the northern Sea of Cortez.

"The corruption was terrible," Bermudez said. "I was fighting against my inspectors and unlawful people. In Guaymas, some people said they would give me a special salary if I would just put a bandanna over my eyes, just look the other way. That is why I came to Loreto. Here, people want change from the authorities. They want no more corruption."

Carlos Fernando Aceves García, who represents Zedillo's government in Baja Sur, acknowledged corruption is a problem.

"I cannot say when or how many times it happens. "(But) it does," said Aceves, delegado (delegate) 3 for Mexico's environmental super-ministry, the Secretariat of the Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (SEMARNAP).

"There is a huge amount of money that moves with the fisheries, millions of dollars. So there is corruption capability," Aceves said.

"Every now and then, we find a truck on the road with (illegal) size fishes or shrimp or lobster. We can suppose somebody took it out of the sea, put it on the road and there was some kind of corruption. We are taking some very sincere and strict actions to prevent it," Aceves said.

The existence of corruption is news to few. 4 What is noteworthy is the growing number of Mexicans who refuse to be a part of it. That includes Gov. Montano, a member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, who said fisheries corruption reaches high levels of government and that it makes bad public policy.

"If the governor is involved with the fishing industry, if he is receiving money from fishing in the Sea of Cortez, he does not have the ability to intervene. That is how it has been," Montano said.

"If you are getting paid from the fisheries, how can you fight against them? You cannot. The governor should not receive any money from fishing so he can have the ability to intervene in any problem and also to fight corruption," Montano said.

Bermudez also refuses to be bribed.

"Many people have tried to give me money or shrimp. My conscience won't let me do it," said the Loreto park director. "I am trying to make here a place where the people can live and the resources can prosper."

Such accounts do not surprise Ezcurra, the former high-level conservation official.

"Corruption is a painful reality in Mexico," he said. "But at the same time, there are many people who believe in what they are doing and in their country and who are very professional and are not corrupt. You usually find these people in areas like health and education and the environment where people are devoted."

Bermudez's arrival in Loreto was no accident. He was appointed by Mexico's secretary of The Environment, Julia Carabias.

"I believe in my secretariat," he said. "She is my friend. She requires four things of people in public service: honesty, capability, loyalty and social service."

"Julia is doing a fantastic job with parks and protected areas," Ezcurra said. "If you go to protected areas today you will find in every one a person who is doing their best to keep things going. There is a presence."

At Cabo Pulmo, home of the northernmost coral reef in the eastern Pacific, it makes a difference. Twenty times in three years, Murrieta has moved against poachers. He has busted illegal spear-gunners, gill-netters and people digging up turtle eggs on the beach. With no federal financial support, Murrieta uses his own gear and operates at considerable personal risk.

"I don't carry a gun," he said. "I just carry the law in my hands."

Aceves, the federal environmental officer in La Paz, said help is on the way. "Cabo Pulmo is a recent park," he said. "We have not had financial resources for it. This year, we are going to have some (government) financial 5 help for Cabo Pulmo."

But elsewhere, long stretches of coastline will remain unpatrolled.

"We don't have the capacity to watch all the shore, not even with the army, not even with the navy," Aceves said. "There are too many kilometers. There are too many bays and places where people can hide.

"There are illegal fisheries. We know that. We are working on that. Mexico is an underdeveloped country. It has many needs, many urgencies. I can't call Julia Carabias and say, "I need more money.' There is no money."

Montano, the new governor, has a solution in mind:

"I want to bring more surveillance and enforcement authority to local Baja communities -- so they will be guarding the sea," he said. "They are the ones who live on the sea; they should have more authority in protecting it."

Aceves said Zedillo's government supports the idea and is helping to create civilian surveillance committees.

"It's a way to put a stop to corruption because people are going to watch over their own resources and they are not going to let someone take them out by tipping the local official," he said.

At Loreto, it's already happening.

"One day, a kid came running into my office, 10 years old, and shouted, "Hey, there's a shrimp trawler in the bay!'" Arcas said.

Most importantly, Loreto fishermen continue to earn a living. And marine life is rebounding.

"There is a qualitative and quantitative difference," said Bermudez. "This was a terrible season for shrimp in the Sea of Cortez. The one place where there are shrimp is inside the park. And they are big ones, too.

"Fishermen know that if they operate within the law, they can survive and their sons can be fishermen, too," Bermudez said. "Perhaps in 10 years, this will be a model national park for Mexico."