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Mitsubishi / ESSA Salt Mining in Mexican Biosphere
The Mexican salt company Exportadora de Sal (ESSA) and Mitsubishi Corporation are planning to expand their salt mining operations in the Vizcaino Desert Reserve, a Mexican Government Biosphere Reserve and a United Nations World Heritage site. Exportadaor de Sal and Mitsubishi claim, in their initial environmental impact assessment (EIA), that no damage to Laguna San Ignacio and the surrounding biosphere would occur because the companies consider the site to be "wastelands with little biodiversity and no known productive use."
The San Ignacio Lagoon now remains the only unspoiled of three bays on the Pacific coast of the Baja California peninsula where migrating gray whales winter to breed and bear their young. This biosphere is also home to marine turtles, dolphins, pronghorn antelope, mountain lions, coyotes, peregrine falcons, golden eagles, black brant geese, osprey, and blue-wing teals.
ESSA has operated a similar salt mining operation at Guerrero Negro for thirty years and in that time has destroyed an ecosystem once as pristine as Laguna San Ignacio. Whales no longer visit Guerrero Negro and have moved to Scammon's Lagoon to the south. Ocean-going ship traffic, pollution, changes to the lagoon's salinity and temperature due to continuous saltworks pumping, and land-side infrastructure construction are the causes and the proposed construction at Laguna San Ignacio are expected to permanently impact the entire 86,000 acre reserve. The construction of a mile-long pier at the mouth of the lagoon and other mining facilities would devastate the marine ecosystem including estuaries and mangrove forests and the surrounding flatlands.
In 1995, the National Ecology Institute of Mexico rejected the EIA submitted by ESSA, citing the project's incompatibility with the reserve's designation as a UN World Heritage site and the proximity to the lagoon. Pressure from the Mexican environmental organization Grupo de los Cien (Group of 100) and the international environmental community is credited with stopping the project. Juan Ignacio Bremer, director of Exportadora de Sal, filed an appeal with the Mexican government. Mitsubishi and ESSA are preparing a new EIA and hope to form a "blue ribbon panel of world renowned scientists" to help gain approval. The new EIA is to be submitted before the National Ecology Institute in early 1999.
Laguna San Ignacio is critical to the survival of the gray whale as a breeding and feeding habitat. The loss of this biosphere has the potential of reversing five decades of cooperation between the US, Mexico and Canada in returning the gray whale from the brink of extinction. Additionally, it is expected that the Mitsubishi / ESSA project will have a negative impact on the local community. Many residents earn their livelihoods from small-scale fishing and whale watching. The possible collapse of subsistence fisheries and disappearance of the gray whales will irreparably end their ability to earn a living through fishing and eco-tourism. Environmental groups including the Grupo de los Cien, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earth Island Institute, and the Oceanic Resource Foundation oppose this project and seek the support of the global environmental community. It is expected this issue will be strongly influenced by international public opnion and individuals are encouraged to write or call the people listed below to protest the planned salt mine at Laguna San Ignacio.
| Mexico: | ||
|
Ernesto Zedillo |
Jesus Silva Herzog |
Julia Carabias |
| Mitsubishi: | ||
|
Tohei Takeuchi |
Minoru Makihara |
Dick Recchia |
Troubled Waters: A Call for Action
We, the undersigned marine scientists and conservation biologists, call upon the world's citizens and governments to recognize that the living sea is in trouble and to take decisive action. We must act quickly to stop further severe, irreversible damage to the sea's biological diversity and integrity.
Marine ecosystems are home to many phyla that live nowhere else. As vital components of our planet's life support systems, they protect shorelines from flooding, break down wastes, moderate climate and maintain a breathable atmosphere. Marine species provide a livelihood for millions of people, food, medicines, raw materials and recreation for billions, and are intrinsically important.
Life in the world's estuaries, coastal waters, enclosed seas and oceans is increasingly threatened by: 1) overexploitation of species, 2) physical alteration of ecosystems, 3) pollution, 4) introduction of alien species, and 5) global atmospheric change. Scientists have documented the extinction of marine species, disappearance of ecosystems and loss of resources worth billions of dollars. Overfishing has eliminated all but a handful of California's white abalones. Swordfish fisheries have collapsed as more boats armed with better technology chase ever fewer fish. Northern right whales have not recovered six decades after their exploitation supposedly ceased. Steller sea lion populations have dwindled as fishing for their food has intensified. Cyanide and dynamite fishing are destroying the world's richest coral reefs. Bottom trawling is scouring continental shelf seabeds from the poles to the tropics. Mangrove forests are vanishing. Logging and farming on hillsides are exposing soils to rains that wash silt into the sea, killing kelps and reef corals. Nutrients from sewage and toxic chemicals from industry are overnourishing and poisoning estuaries, coastal waters and enclosed seas. Millions of seabirds have been oiled, drowned by longlines, and deprived of nesting beaches by development and nest-robbing cats and rats. Alien species introduced intentionally or as stowaways in ships' ballast tanks have become dominant species in marine ecosystems around the world. Reef corals are succumbing to diseases or undergoing mass bleaching in many places. There is no doubt that the sea's biological diversity and integrity are in trouble.
To reverse this trend and avert even more widespread harm to marine species and ecosystems, we urge citizens and governments worldwide to take the following five steps:
- Identify and provide effective protection to all populations
of marine species that are significantly depleted or declining,
take all measures necessary to allow their recovery, minimize
bycatch, end all subsidies that encourage overfishing and ensure
that use of marine species is sustainable in perpetuity.
- Increase the number and effectiveness of marine protected areas
so that 20% of Exclusive Economic Zones and the High Seas are
protected from threats by the Year 2020.
- Ameliorate or stop fishing methods that undermine sustainability
by harming the habitats of economically valuable marine species
and the species they use for food and shelter.
- Stop physical alteration of terrestrial, freshwater and marine
ecosystems that harms the sea, minimize pollution discharged at
sea or entering the sea from the land, curtail introduction of
alien marine species and prevent further atmospheric changes that
threaten marine species and ecosystems.
- Provide sufficient resources to encourage natural and social scientists to undertake marine conservation biology research needed to protect, restore and sustainably use life in the sea.
Nothing happening on Earth threatens our security more than the
destruction of our living systems. The situation is so serious that
leaders and citizens cannot afford to wait even a decade to make
major progress toward these goals. To maintain, restore and sustainably
use the sea's biological diversity and the essential products and
services that it provides, we must act now.
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