More than 60 scientists, fishing community members, dive guides, and local officials gathered at the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur (UABCS) this week to map ecologically critical marine zones along the Todos Santos to Cabo Pulmo coastline. The workshop marks the first attempt to build a unified ecological baseline for a 200-kilometer coastal corridor that supports both one of Mexico’s fastest-growing tourism economies and some of its most biodiverse marine habitats.
Cabo Pulmo Marine Conservation Effort Draws 40 Researchers From Four Institutions
The hybrid workshop, coordinated from the UABCS campus in La Paz, brought together more than 40 researchers from UABCS, CIBNOR (the Northwest Biological Research Center), CICIMAR (the Interdisciplinary Center for Marine Sciences), and CICESE (the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada). Representatives from fishing cooperatives, nature guides, tourism operators, and municipal authorities also participated in person and remotely.
Participants used criteria from the Convention on Biological Diversity and geographic information system (GIS) tools to define what organizers call Ecologically Significant Regions, or RES. The goal: produce a science-backed, community-validated map of the marine systems between Todos Santos on the Pacific side and Cabo Pulmo on the Gulf of California coast. Three organizations led the effort: Azul Pacífico, a Mexican marine conservation nonprofit; The Mare Nostrum Global Initiative, an international ocean policy group; and UABCS through its Reef Fauna Program.
Dr. Carlos Sánchez Ortiz, a UABCS professor and head of the Reef Fauna Program, opened the event by stressing the need to study these biologically important zones as a connected system rather than in isolation. Hans Herrmann, a marine ecologist and director of The Mare Nostrum Global Initiative, framed the stakes bluntly. “If we don’t know which regions are the most valuable of these marine jewels, we can hardly understand their true worth,” he said. “And when we ourselves don’t recognize it, no one else will decide that value for us.”
Fifteen Years of Coastal Development With No Integrated Marine Zoning
The Todos Santos to Cabo Pulmo corridor has experienced the fastest demographic and infrastructure growth in Baja California Sur over the past 15 years. Los Cabos municipality alone grew from roughly 238,000 residents in the 2010 census to over 350,000 by 2020, with construction permits for hotels and residential developments accelerating each year. Yet organizers noted that this expansion has proceeded without any integrated understanding of the marine ecosystems that underpin the region’s economy.
That economy is heavily ocean-dependent. Los Cabos International Airport handled 7.2 million passengers in 2024, most of them drawn by sportfishing, diving, whale watching, and beach tourism. Cabo Pulmo National Park, located at the corridor’s eastern end, protects the only living coral reef in the Gulf of California. UNESCO recognized the Gulf of California’s islands and protected areas as a World Heritage Site in 2005, with Cabo Pulmo as one of its anchoring ecosystems. Studies published by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography documented a more than 460% increase in fish biomass at Cabo Pulmo between 1999 and 2009 after fishing was banned inside the park in 1995.
But the Gulf of California is also under pressure. Commercial and artisanal fishing continues outside park boundaries. Hotel and residential projects along the Tourist Corridor between San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas have expanded steadily onto previously undeveloped coastline. Herrmann noted that while significant research exists on individual reefs and fisheries, no one has studied the corridor as a single connected system. That fragmentation makes it difficult for regulators, developers, or communities to assess cumulative impacts.
Workshop Results Could Shape Future Development and Fishing Permits
The workshop’s output, a territorial baseline map of ecologically significant zones, could carry real regulatory weight. Mexico’s General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection allows science-based ecological zoning studies to inform federal and state land use decisions. If the RES map identifies critical habitat connectivity between Cabo Pulmo and other reef systems to the west, that data could factor into environmental impact assessments (MIAs) required for new coastal construction permits.
Fishing access is also at stake. Artisanal fishing cooperatives along the East Cape depend on near-shore species whose populations are connected to the reef systems inside and outside Cabo Pulmo. Any new zoning recommendations could affect where pangas can operate and what species they can target. The workshop included cooperative members at the table, a deliberate choice by organizers to ensure that local knowledge shaped the results alongside satellite data and species surveys.
Property owners along the corridor between Todos Santos and San José del Cabo should watch how these results move through regulatory channels. Ecological zoning designations can restrict building heights, setback distances from the shoreline, and wastewater discharge standards for new projects.
The first phase of mapping wrapped at UABCS this week, with a final plenary session and group validation of the preliminary zones. Organizers have not announced a timeline for publishing the completed baseline study, but Herrmann indicated the results are intended to directly inform public and private decision-making in the corridor. This story was first reported by Colectivo Pericú.