GUADALUPE MAY BE CLOSED PERMANENTLY

[Ken Kurtis]

As you may know, Isla Guadalupe, home to an incredible population of Great White Sharks, was closed to diving this past season (July-November). Now there's talk of keeping it permanently closed. Aside from the financial implications for dive boats that run trips there, there's a major concern that this will harm, not help, the sharks. The reason is that the Mexican government generally doesn't have the resources to patrol the island to prevent illegal fishing. (Guadalupe is 150 miles west of Baja.) But by having numerous commercial dive boats at the island regularly, it acts as a de facto deterrent to anyone who would try to plunder the waters because the dive boats can literally call in the Coast Guard. So the future is unclear. I've been in touch with Mike Lever, owner of Nautilus Dive Adventures, who is trying to organize others to keep the island open and accessible. We've done four trips to Guadalupe with Mike & Nautilus and the experience has been unique to say the least. To close Guadalupe permanently would be a terrible loss on many levels.

 

[mcohen1021]

What are the details on the why it's closed?

 

[Jake 10]

What are the details on the why it's closed?

why the permanent closure of Guadalupe Islands ?

Great white cage diving hot spot Isla Guadalupe has been permanently closed to tourism by the Mexican Government.

As of midnight, 10 January, ‘all tourism activities, and film and TV productions at Isla Guadalupe’ have been banned, leaving tour operators and liveaboards out of business.

Cage diving had already been suspended, along with sport fishing, between May and December 2022, a closure intended to ‘make it possible to gather information that will guide activities and the adoption of the best sustainability practices that guarantee the conservation of the aforementioned populations’, according to a statement issued by the Mexican Government.

As a result of the information gathering, the new Management Plan for Guadalupe (text in Spanish) issued on 9 January, reads: ‘White shark observation may not be carried out in the Reserve for tourist purposes, to avoid altering their habitat, behavior and feeding sites, and thereby preserve and conserve the species.’

excerpt from divemagazine.com

 

[mcohen1021]

But somewhere I read there was a shark death attributed to a LOB operator - that's what I was referring to.

 

[Jake 10]

@mcohen1021 something like this?

Dead great white shark and endangered vaquita among grim discoveries in Mexican reserve | Men's Journal​

Sea Shepherd reveals evidence of poaching in a Sea of Cortez zone created to protect the vaquita from rapid extinction.

www.mensjournal.com

 

[Eric802]

@mcohen1021 something like this?

Dead great white shark and endangered vaquita among grim discoveries in Mexican reserve | Men's Journal​

Sea Shepherd reveals evidence of poaching in a Sea of Cortez zone created to protect the vaquita from rapid extinction.

www.mensjournal.com

That article is undated as far as I could see, but it seems to be a few years old. The shark at issue in that article is alleged to have died from illegal gill-netting, which is exactly the kind of illegal fishing that could proliferate without the frequent presence of dive operators in the area.

The G.W. death I've heard attributed directly to the diving tourism industry involves one that got caught in a cage and suffered fatal injuries trying to extract itself.

 

[scubadada]

Also, see Guadalupe closure, nautilus options

 

[Jake 10]

@Eric802
you are referring to this one in 2016 ?

Diver Recounts His Encounter With a Cage-Breaking Great White Shark (Published 2016)​

“Honestly at that moment I don’t have time to get afraid,” Chan Ming, the diver, said of the encounter with a shark that broke through the bars of a diving cage.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Eric802]

Not sure; that article is behind a paywall. The one I saw referenced had the shark being "decapitated", but who knows how accurate that might be.

 

[Jake 10]