2 December 2006
Isla del Carmen
by Irene, onboard the Esperanza
Today we arrived at Isla del Carmen, which is part of the Bahía de Loreto National Park. Around 40% of all the marine species living in the whole of the Gulf of California can be found here. Gavin, Alex and Alejandro jumped in the water, and once again I wished that I was a diver. The water temperature was around 23 degrees and the visibility better than expected. There are not a lot of divers coming here - most of them stay further south.Alex managed to capture some of the islands' marine life. I've fallen in love with the puffer fish, so I made a wallpaper out of it if you want to embellish your desktop.
Not far from here, on the mainland, big coastal projects are under development: "Golden Beach" and "Loreto Bay". They both include the construction of hotels, golf courses, villas, marinas, malls, spas, restaurants and an airport… and they are both very far from being developed in an environmentally sustainable way. No proper assessment of the impacts on the surrounding environment has been made. Discharges, spills, dredging and pollution from the marinas will most certainty have an impact on the marine life of the area.But right now I don’t want to think about that, I just enjoy looking at my puffer fish. And dream about being a diver. And hope that whatever it is that smells so delicious on the barbecue on poop deck will soon be ready to eat. And then there might be dancing - after all it is Saturday night.

Blue striped snappers. © Greenpeace/Alex Hofford

Starfish © Greenpeace/Alex Hofford
Comments
Hi Irene,
Thanks for the buffer fish, those big eyes work everytime, funny they appear different colour. I used to have some buffer fish (fresh water, bred in captivity) in an aquarium and they were really vicious and kept snapping the tails of the other fish, I had to buy them a sperate tank to protect the other fish and then in the end killed each others...so don't be fooled by lovely looks!
Enjoy the BBQ, wish I was there to dance on the helideck...
Posted by: Sari at December 4, 2006 11:11 AM
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