Cabo Pulmo

Cabo Pulmo holds the only hard coral reef in the Gulf of California and one of the few in the eastern Pacific, and by the early 1990s local fishing families had watched it strip out almost completely. They asked for the area to be made a national park in 1995 and then largely stopped fishing it themselves. Surveys about fifteen years later found the total fish biomass had risen several times over, with big predators back, an increase repeatedly described as the most dramatic recorded in any marine reserve. Divers now see schooling jacks in tornado formations, bull sharks, and rays. The village stayed small on purpose: unpaved streets, off-grid solar power and no resorts.

History

After local community groups organised for its protection, President Ernesto Zedillo declared the 71 square kilometres around Cabo Pulmo a federal national marine park on 5 June 1995, and researchers from the Autonomous University of Baja California, who came to study local fishing, helped lobby the government to support the effort. Jose Luis Pepe Murrieta became the first volunteer park director in 1997, the year the non-profit Patronato Cabo del Este was founded, the community group Amigos para la Conservación de Cabo Pulmo followed in 2002, and Carlos Narro was appointed the first official park director in 2004. In 2005 the park became part of the Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California World Heritage Site, and in 2008 a Ramsar wetland (Wikipedia, Cabo Pulmo National Park).

Highlights

• The reef - the only hard coral reef in the Gulf of California.
• Schooling jacks - dense tornadoes of fish over the seamounts.
• Los Frailes sea lions - the colony on the headland at the park's edge.
• The village - deliberately small, off-grid and unpaved.

When to go

July to November has the warmest water and best visibility, with the trade-off of hurricane season risk; winter is cooler with more wind and lower visibility but good for larger animals. Diving is by licensed local operator only, with limits on numbers at each site.

Before you go

The last stretch of road is unpaved and rough, and hire companies often forbid it; many visitors arrive by tour from Los Cabos instead. The village has no bank, no petrol and limited food, so come stocked. There is no swimming pool infrastructure or nightlife of any kind, which is the point. Anchoring and fishing rules are strict and enforced.

Nearby

Los Frailes is at the park's south end; San José del Cabo is two hours west.

Key facts