Successes

In 1998, WiLDCOAST’s Executive Director, Serge Dedina, cofounded the School of Field Studies in Puerto San Carlos. Serge was extensively involved in helping to mediate conflicts between the Mexican government and local fishermen over access to whale watching permits in Bahia Magdalena. His book Saving the Gray Whale documents conservation issues revolving around gray whales in the bay and his most recent Wild Sea: Eco-Wars and Surf Stories from the Coast of the Californias includes two chapters that discuss the cultural ecology of fishing and conservation in Bahia Magdalena.

WiLDCOAST started its coastal and marine conservation efforts in Bahia Magdalena in 2010 incorporating the lessons we have learned in other regions of the Baja California Peninsula. We identified the following conservation needs that impact marine wildlife conservation: The need for sustainable planning of coastal development, fishing regulations and enforcement of existing ordinances, capacity building among local leaders for environmental conservation improving internal and external communications by local groups and nonprofits engaged in conservation activities.

Activities in 2011

• In January, WiLDCOAST brought reporters from Televisa (Mexico’s largest national television network)  to highlight the importance of the Bahia Magdalena's mangrove forests as important breeding grounds for fish, sharks, shrimp, and sea turtles, current threats that face them, and of successful local efforts to protect them. In July, the resulting 1-hour special report was seen by an estimated 2 million viewers.
• During the gray whale watching season – January through April, WiLDCOAST worked with local tourism operators in the communities of Puerto San Carlos (PSC) and Puerto Lopez Mateos (PALM) to encourage the use of whale watching best practices. Four publicity signs with the image of EL Hijo del Santo were used to promote widespread adherence to federal whale watching regulations during the Gray Whale Festival in Puerto San Carlos, in an effort to frame positive conservation messages and we distributed T-shirts among the boat captains to remind the importance of following norms and regulations in order to conserve gray whales as their permanent resource.
• WiLDCOAST produced an alternative means to deliver information with the quarterly gazette El Faro in order to improve local communications and increase the positive perception and understanding of the importance of conservation activities to protect the region’s natural wealth. 5,000 free copies for the first four publications (March, June, October 2011 and January 2012) were distributed in schools, stores, restaurants, hotels and during festivals.
• To promote ecotourism activities as a means for conservation economic practices. We organized the workshop Economic uses and appreciation of the natural and cultural resources in the community for high school students who are the potential future decision-makers.
• To address the great need of improving the town appearance, a total of 25 high school students participated in the creation of three murals for Lopez Mateos and four in San Carlos. They also collaborated in the making of two sculptures for each town made with recycled plastic bottles and trash to increase awareness of the need to reduce and reuse trash. To improve trash management, WILDCOAST created a directory of schools, grocery stores and restaurants that potentially will participate in a reduction of trash campaign. 
• To improve the available information for spanish speaking tourists on what to do while visiting, WiLDCOAST produced a map-directory for each town to be distributed in Electronic version and in strategic tourism agencies in the main towns of Southern Baja California.
• To work mainly with adult women in the training of handcrafts making, we organized a Seashell Carving Techniques workshops in collaboration with Perlas del Cortez, a pearl farm business based in La Paz. This is the first step is in order to promote the well-organized production of carved shells in order to become an economic alternative for local women.