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General topics about life on and travel to the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico
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Balandra spill: Mexico still has much to learn
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Balandra spill: Mexico still has much to learn
La Paz, BCS – The fuel spill in the natural protected area of Balandra, in Baja California Sur, is an example of the government’s inability to manage these areas, said Miguel Rivas, director of Marine Sanctuaries at Oceana.
The lack of tools to implement management programs for natural areas such as Balandra, said Rivas, was demonstrated by the incident on August 21, when the tourist boat Fortius spilled hydrocarbons in the area, contaminating the beach and endangering the marine life that the reserve seeks to conserve.
“It is essential to effectively preserve the Natural Protected Areas of Mexico: that the impacts of this Balandra accident be determined and exemplary sanctions be applied,” said the director of Oceana.
Likewise, the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa), he pointed out, must establish the corresponding sanctions in accordance with the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection.
He stated that in the case of Balandra, the management plan for said Protected Natural Area clearly establishes that access to motorized boats is not allowed, so the incident derives from various faults: having entered the reserve, playing with flares and the contamination from oil spill.
“This is a deliberate breach of the management program by zone and schedule,” said the director of Marine Sanctuaries in Oceana.
He also commented that this unfortunate accident is an opportunity for the Natural Protected Area management programs to be updated according to Mexico’s conservation challenges, as well as providing the necessary resources for compliance, as mentioned by Oceana in its ranking of Natural Marine Protected Areas a year ago.
Balandra, a beach located in Baja California Sur, was recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005, and is an example of mangrove protection, as recognized by the ranking published by Oceana in 2021.
What happened with the Fortius tourist boat endangers marine life, but it is not an isolated incident, since in Balandra the boats constantly break visiting hours and more than 400 people enter daily, which is the maximum allowed.
All of the above, due to the lack of inspection and surveillance, for which human, technical and economic resources are needed.
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2 Replies
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Balandra is such a beautiful beach and it is horrible that this happened to there. This current Morena government is the worst I have seen in the last 30 years. They always be telling us all they are doing for Mexico, blah blah blah but don’t really do anything more than tell everybody that they are not corrupt like the governments before. May be they are or may be not but these guys don’t do anything but promote themselves and their party!
😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
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This has been a circus. Now they are reporting that a tug boat was hired to raise and haul the sunken yacht Fortius from the seafloor off Balandra beach to La Paz. Looks like it started well but as the tug moved out of the cove area it encountered higher waves than originally expected from the passing Tropical Storm Javier and combined with a large wake that crossed its path from a large ship passing by in the gulf, the tow line to the yacht broke free and the Fortius sank again, this time a few hundred meters from the Baja shoreline.
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