Mexico

The Gray Whale Sanctuary

The Gray Whale National Park is situated in the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, 11 km outside of the town of Guerro Negro just south of the 2th parallel in Baja California South. It was declared a gray whlae refuge in 1972, the first of it's kind in the world and has the very best whale protection regulations anywhere! There are only two observation areas where only government licensed boats are allowed, but most of the lagoon is off limits to everyone except the whales. It is reassuring to know that the whales can choose to be around boats or not.

Whale watching trips to Laguna Ojo de Liebre, the lagoon that has the largest population of gray whales. Census for last year 300+ animals in San Ignacio Lagoon, about 300 in Magdalena Bay and over 2000 in Laguna Ojo De Liebre.

What is an ejido?

The ejido Benito Juarez is a cooperative community located 31 km. South of Guerrero Negro. It is made up of 90 families who are involved in agriculture and ranching on their 128,000 hectares of land surrounding Guerrero Negro. The slat mine as well as the whale watching areas are situated on their land in the heart of the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve. Revenues from their various resources including crops, fresh water, land leases, their trailer park, campground, restaurant and whale watching are equally distributed among the families.

Ojo de Liebre is about 60 km long and 620 km of water area, making it the primary calving lagoon where there are usually about 1,500 whales at the peak in mid February. In comparison, San Ignacio is about 35 km long and has only 150 square km and about 400 whlaes at the peak and twice as many licensed boats. Bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions also inhabit the lagoon as well as thousands of migratory shore birds, song birds, sea birds and birds of prey. As the tide drops you can observe dozens of differnt species feeding on the mudflats and the dawn & dusk fly pasts of white pelicans are enchanting.

The Mexican government is building a spectacular visitor center near the beach, which is being constructed out of lovely adobes made by some families on the ejido. It is due to open in March and will have a museum, resturant, ticket office, store, public washrooms and lecture hall.