WHEN THE WHALES WIN, EVERYONE WINS, MEXICO
When the Whales Win, Everyone Wins: Connecting and Empowering Mexican Communities through Whale Science and Conservation, Mexico
We will conduct a multi-site humpback whale survey, in collaboration with our network of whale watch guides, local citizens, young Mexican biologists, and our team of Mexican biologist/educators. Our team will identify key regions along 75 miles of coast where mother/calf pairs rest, nurse, and give birth with the goal of generating region wide stewardship and protected areas where whales will be safe, the ocean can heal and communities can gather to celebrate and care for nature. Whales are exceptionally good at taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, from the phytoplankton that their excrement creates to the carbon sink that their bodies become at the bottom of the sea. An average whale accumulates 33 tons of CO2 over its life, making them a climate powerhouse equal to hundreds of trees.
THE ISSUE
Our destination and community are facing environmental and social decimation caused by climate change, irresponsible development, and overfishing. Climate change is causing our lagoons to fill, our mangroves to die, and our community to be swept away by rising sea levels and increasingly violent and frequent storms. Changing ocean conditions mean that humpbacks can no longer reliably find food in former locations. Our community has seen first-hand how vulnerable whales are to ship strikes, entanglement, deadly orca attacks, boat harassment, and more. Finally, proposed mega-development projects (a highway across our lagoon and the largest resort in the state of Guerrero) would be catastrophic for the mangrove and lagoon system and the reef system that sit right below the proposed sites.
THE GOAL
In 3 years, we will create official protection measures and protected areas for whales to rest, nurse, and calve, which will benefit the reefs and sandy bottom shores where they are residing and help to sequester carbon.
Project updates
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This project has already been awarded $7,000 by global businesses in the travel and outdoor industries! Help them achieve even more impact and get to $10,000 by the end of this year.
MORE ABOUT Whales of guerrero
The Whales of Guerrero facilitates community-driven conservation in the fishing village of Barra de Potosí and throughout the southwest Pacific State of Guerrero, Mexico, pioneering a new approach to coastal protection that cultivates local leadership through citizen science, peer learning, and community outreach. After seven years of collaborative marine mammal research, the seeds of stewardship have taken root in our region. We want to help them bear fruit by galvanizing an emerging group of Fishery and Conservation Leaders who will lead the community toward long-term marine restoration and conservation. The Whales of Guerrero connects people with nature through programs that inspire and empower environmental stewardship.