New Marine Park at Loreto, Baja

December 1997 - January 1998

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

And new rules for tour operators

by Alan Wilson

Ron Bellerive of Villas de Loreto resort in the town of Loreto in Baja called to tell us that the area of Loreto and its surrounding islands has been declared a Marine National Park. "The community pushed to have this declaration," Bellerive said, "and it will mean careful control of environmental impacts."

Peter Marcus of Gabriola Cycle & Kayak, a long-time Baja operator, has the following comments on these developments:

"The upside of making large areas of the Sea of Cortez a Park, is that commercial fishing, particularly shrimp boats, and land use in the area is tightly monitored. The downside for some foreign commercial operators is that it has become increasingly difficult to obtain permits to operate in Mexico. Several companies have pulled out of the area this year because of the seemingly endless paper shuffle. Long-standing Baja operators have persevered, however, and the tighter environmental controls will in the long run probably help them.

"As recently as two years ago, pretty well anyone could show up with a fleet a boats and run some trips and no one particularly took notice. Times have changed. To operate a kayak tour in Baja now you have to: (1) Import boats through a broker (30% duty) plus a few permits. (2) Register boats with national registry in Mexico City. (3) Have a Mexican Company paying taxes and maintaining an office with a commercial address. Note, as of this year, a Mexican Company must be at least 51% Mexican owned to be able to register boats. (4) Obtain a camping and land-use permit from SEMANARP (government agency). (5) Obtain work permits for staff.

"Plan a year in advance because it will take about a year to get all the permits. Make sure you have someone on your team that is fluent in Spanish to guide you through the paper work. Don't plan to file paper work by fax or courier, respect needs to be shown, hence most documents will have to be hand delivered. Once you have all your permits, each trip is to be approved by local Port Captains and a nominal launch fee is to be paid each time you put a boat in the water.

"There is an upside to all this paper work. Beaches are being monitored for impact and overuse. Fewer commercial operators means better business for ones that persevere and potentially less impact on the desert. Many of the above permits and regulations have been in place for many years but were rarely enforced. Now there is tight monitoring of operators.

"What does this mean for people bringing in their own personal boats for a private trip? Well, if you're not a commercial operator, you need not worry. But if paddling out of Loreto or La Paz, you should stop in the Port Captain's office and file a trip plan and pay the $10 launch fee."