MITSUBISHI SALTWORKS IN BAJA, CALIFORNIA, MEXICO:

Gray Whale Victory!

In our Summer 1999 newsletter we described a conflict arising over the planned construction by Mitsubishi and the Mexican Government (ESSA) of a saltworks in the region of Laguna San Ignacio, Mexico. Dr. Payne worked intensively with the National Resources Defense Council and the International Fund for Animal Welfare on this issue. He also wrote personal letters and called some of the world's most acclaimed scientists and asked them to put their names to a statement that was aimed at stopping Mitsubishi and the Mexican Government from constructing the salt plant on the shores of San Ignacio Lagoon. A good friend, Beto Bedolfe, jokingly summed up Roger's statement one day by saying, "It's not rocket science that we should not build this plant. If you think it is, the undersigned are rocket scientists". On July 15, 1999, a full-page article containing an official statement signed by 34 of these scientists (including eight Nobel prize winners, two National Medal of Science winners and ten MacArthur Fellows) was published in the New York and LA Times. On March 3, 2000 while visiting Antarctica, Dr. Payne heard the tremendous news - that our work to protect the lagoon had succeeded. Upon receiving this news, he wrote: "Such wonderful, wonderful news about San Ignacio! Now it's time to congratulate Mitsubishi and the Mexican Government for their vision. I got your fax on our way to the Falklands/Malvinas from South Georgia as we were inching through dense fog towards Shag Rocks-three stone pinnacles about 130 miles from the nearest land on the northern edge of the Scotia Sea, arguably the stormiest stretch of ocean on earth. The day is relatively calm, and we decided to seize the opportunity of passing near Shag Rocks to look for right whales, a few of which have been seen in their vicinity in recent years, including an animal we know from Patagonia. But dense fog has stopped us from seeing." "When Shag Rocks finally loomed out of the mist they were dead ahead, about two ship's lengths, black, utterly inaccessible, naked of plant life, the sea sucking down to expose their base then rising to a third of their height- the actualization of every sailors worst nightmare. And then a miracle: in the midst of that terrible misty gloom the radio operator handed me your fax with its wonderful news about Mitsubishi abandoning its salt works plan. Everyone on the bridge, and later throughout the ship buzzed with it; and though the fog hasn't lifted, your news has lifted all our spirits." "By chance I gave a lecture last night on whaling, following which a passenger asked what I thought the chances were of Mitsubishi giving up. I responded that in spite of the utterly one-sided nature of the argument, that given the size and power of both parties to the salt works plan that I felt it only marginally possible they would concede. I believe that it must have been the very moment at which Mitsubishi was announcing its back down. It's an important lesson - all of us must accept the fact that reason can and often does win out. It is strong enough, even when its opponent is the world's largest corporation in concert with one of the world's major governments. There are always people of good will in such organizations and if we persist in trying to bring reason to the fore we provide the environment in which such people can help their peers come to rational decisions. In this way we can, together, change the world. I've learned an important lesson: never underestimate the power of reason."

Please see "An Unacceptable Risk" where Dr. Payne's statement is followed by 33 other noted signers whose support helped make this happen...

AN UNACCEPTABLE RISK...

We, the undersigned, are scientists united in our concern over a proposal to build the world's largest saltworks on the shores of Laguna San Ignacio, in Baja California, Mexico, a lagoon designated as a whale sanctuary by Mexico in 1976. In 1988 it was also included within the largest international biosphere reserve in Latin America (the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve) and in 1993 was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is the last undisturbed gray whale breeding and calving area on earth, and for that reason may be of unique importance for the survival of that species. As proposed by Exportadora de Sal, S.A. (ESSA), a joint venture of Mitsubishi Corporation (49%) and the Mexican Government (51%), the saltworks would create a massive 116 square mile industrial landscape of evaporation ponds-larger than Laguna San Ignacio itself-a million-ton salt stockpile, fuel and watertanks, a 1.25-mile long pier with a shipping dock and conveyor belts running from crystallization ponds to the pier's end, workshops, headquarters buildings, and the facilities necessary to support 200 employees while onsite. The upper end of Laguna San Ignacio would be invaded by 17 pumps operating 24 hours a day to draw 6,600 gallons of saltwater per second from the lagoon into the evaporation ponds. We believe that the industrialization of this undisturbed breeding habitat is contrary to the principles and values that sanctuaries, biosphere reserves, and World Heritage Sites were created to uphold. To build major industry here, especially when it is constructed on, extracts its water from and pumps its wastes into a UNESCO World Heritage Site, will create a dangerous precedent-a precedent at odds with the broad scientific consensus that life in the world's estuaries and coastal waters is increasingly threatened by loss and degradation of habitat through physical alteration of ecosystems and by pollution. More specifically, building the saltworks at Laguna San Ignacio will risk introducing to the area the top three present threats to whales besides whaling: loss of habitat, accidents involving collision with ships, and the slow but inexorable bioaccumulation of contaminants in the whales' bodies. A larger human population will be attracted, crowding the whales in the lagoon with more boats, noise and waste. Large ocean going vessels will be introduced to the region. Large quantities of toxic contaminants, such as oil, diesel fuel and concentrated brine wastes will be present. The brine wastes contain toxic concentration of magnesium sulfate, potassium chloride, bromine, iodine, and boron, which, as proposed by ESSA, will be dumped into the adjacent Bahia de las Ballenas-Bay of the Whales. The Vizcaino Reserve contains critical habitat for both terrestrial and marine species, including a highly endangered pronghorn antelope. These species would also be impacted by the saltworks project. According to Mexico's Federal Attorney General for Environmental Protection, a study ordered by his agency showed that a die-off in December 1997 of 94 endangered black sea turtles (Chelonia aggasiz) was possible caused by brine waste contamination from an existing ESSA saltworks at nearby Laguna Ojo de Liebre. In the course of its scientific investigation, the agency also observed a fish kill caused by a spill of over four million gallons of brine waste from this same ESSA plant in May 1998. There may be important regional impacts as well. The flooding of 116 square miles of coastal tidal flats and mangroves would certainly disturb the existing habitat of terrestrial species, altering tidal and runoff patterns and potentially affecting migratory birds. Because there is no way to extract the quantities of sea water needed, without extracting fish fingerlings along with it, pumping some 6,600 gallons per second from the lagoon could adversely affect fisheries in the region. Finally, increased human population is inevitably accompanied by increased poaching of wildlife. For these and other reasons, we believe that ESSA's proposed saltworks would pose an unacceptable risk to significant biological resources in and around Laguna San Ignacio. We respectfully urge Mitsubishi to abandon the project and trust the Mexican government will stand by its original decision denying ESSA permission to construct a saltworks at Laguna San Ignacio.

Roger Payne (Drafter), Founder/President, Ocean Alliance; MacArthur Fellow; Lyndhurst Prize Fellow; United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Laureate; Knighted by Netherlands: Order of the Golden Ark.
Philip Anderson , Professor, Princeton University; Nobel Prize (Physics); National Medal of Science; Dannie Heineman Prize; Bardeen Prize; Foreign Member, Japan Academy; Foreign Member, Royal Society of London.
George Archibald , Founder/Director, International Crane Foundation; MacArthur Fellow; United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Laureate; World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal; Knighted by Netherlands: Order of the Golden Ark.
David Baltimore , President, California Institute of Technology; Nobel Prize (Medicine); Member, National Academy of Sciences; Former President, Rockefeller University; Foreign Member, Royal Society of London; Honorary Member, Japanese Biochemical Society.
Lester Brown , Founder, President, and Senior Researcher, World Watch Institute; MacArthur Fellow; United Nations Environment Prize; United Nations Environment Programme Environmental Leadership Medal; Gold Medal - Pro Habitabili Award, King of Sweden; Blue Planet Prize, Asahi Glass Foundation.
Richard Dawkins , Professor, New College, Oxford University; Nakayama Prize for Human Science; Royal Society of London Michael Faraday Award; Medal of the Zoological Society of London. Irven De Vore, Professor, Harvard University; Lifetime Achievement Award, Institute of Human Origins; Former President, Anthropology Section, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Jared Diamond , Professor, University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine; MacArthur Fellow; Pulitzer Prize; Cosmos Prize (Japan); Coues Award, American Ornithologists' Union; Burr Award, National Geographic Society; Member, National Academy of Sciences.
Rene Drucker-Colin , Chair, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Autonomous National Univ. of Mexico (UNAM); Vice-President and President-Elect, Mexican Academy of Sciences; National Sciences Prize; Guggenheim Fellow; Mexican Fndtn. For Health Prize; National Prize for Sciences and Arts (Mexico).
Sylvia Earle , former Chief Scientist, U.S. NOAA; National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence; President, National Marine Sanctuaries Fndtn.; Knighted by Netherlands: Order of the Golden Ark; Olguin Marine Environment Award; Stratton Leadership Award.
Paul Ehrlich , Professor, Stanford University; Crafoord Prize (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences); MacArthur Fellow; Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; United Nations Environment Programme Sasakawa Environment Prize; Volvo Environment Prize; Heinz Award for the Environment; Member, National Academy of Sciences.
Thomas Eisner , Professor, Cornell University; National Medal of Science; Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; Guggenheim Fellow; Centennial Medal, Harvard University; Member, National Academy of Sciences; Foreign Member, Royal Society of London.
Murray Gell-Mann , Professor and Co-Chair, Santa Fe Institute; Nobel Prize (Physics); Member, President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology; John J. Carty Medallist, National Academy of Sciences; United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Laureate; Foreign Member, Royal Society of London.
Arturo Gomez Pompa , Distinguished Professor of Botany, University of California, Riverside; Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; Guggenheim Fellow; Knighted by Netherlands: Order of the Golden Ark; Herrera Medal (Mexico); Advisor to President of Mexico on tropical ecology issues.
Stephen Jay Gould , Professor and Museum Curator, Harvard University; MacArthur Fellow; President, Society for Study of Evolution; Former President, Paleontological Society; Member, National Academy of Sciences; Medal of the Zoological Society of London; Gold Medal for Service to Zoology, Linnaean Society of London.
Donald Griffen , Professor, Harvard University; Professor, Rockefeller University; Former President, Frank Guggenheim Foundation; Eliot Medal, National Academy of Science; Member, National Academy of Science.
Roger Guillemin , Distinguished Professor, the Salk Institute; Nobel Prize (Medicine and Physiology); National Medal of Science (USA); Laskel Foundation Award; Member, National Academy of Sciences (USA); Honorary Member, Japan Biochemical Society.
Sidney Holt , Founder/CEO, International League for Protection of Cetaceans; Marine biologist and environmental consultant; United Nations Environmental Programme Global 500 Laureate; Knighted by Netherlands: Order of the Golden Ark; World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal.
Sir Andrew Huxley , Professor, Trinity College, Cambridge; Nobel Prize (Medicine); Member, Royal Society of London; Copley Medal: Order of Merit (United Kingdom); Grand Cordon of the Sacred Treasure (Japan).
Brian Josephson , Professor, Cavendish Lab, Cambridge University; Nobel Prize (Physics); Hughes Medal; Faraday Medal; Holweck Medal.
Donald Kennedy , Former President and currently Bing Professor of Environmental Science, Stanford University; Former Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Member, National Academy of Sciences.
Sir Aaron Klug , President, Royal Society; Nobel Prize (Chemistry); Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse and of Trinity College; Former Director, Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge; Former Director of Studies in Natural Sciences, Peterhouse, Cambridge.
Masakazu Konishi , Professor, California Institute of Technology; International Prize for Biology, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; Dana Award for Achievement in Health; Member, National Academy of Sciences.
Donella Meadows , Former Director, Sustainability Institute and Professor of Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College; MacArthur Fellow; Pew Scholar; Co-Author, Club of Rome Report, "Limits to Growth" and "Beyond the Limits."
Mario Molina , Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology; Nobel Prize (Chemistry); Member, President's Committee of Advisors in Science and Technology; Member, Secretary of Energy Advisory Board; Member, National Academy of Sciences; Board Member, US-Mexico Foundation of Science. Giuseppe Notarbartolo de Sciara, President, Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica Applicata al Mare (ICRAM); Former Director, European Cetacean Society; Tridente d'Oro Prize.
Fernamdo Nottebohm , Distinguished Professor, Rockefeller University; Director, Rockefeller Field Research Center for Ethology and Ecology; Dana Award for Achievement in Health; Pattison Award for Distinguished Research in Neurosciences; Coue's Award, American Ornithologists' Union.
Peter Raven , Director, Missouri Botanical Gardens; Engelmann Professor, Washington University; MacArthur Fellow; Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; Volvo Environment Prize; Unite Nations Environment Programme Sasakawa Environment Prize.
Jorge Reynolds Pombo , Electrical and Bio-Engineer (including pioneer of pacemaker and whale electrocardiograms); Director, Grupo Whales Heart Satellite Tracking; Member, 34 Colombia and international scientific societies; Miembro Asociado por Invitacion Sociedad Mexicano de Cardiologica; La Orden de Boyaca, Grado Gran Official; Silver Medal of Scientific Merit, United Kingdom.
John Terborgh , Director, Duke University Center for Tropical Conservation; Founder, Matin Tropical Research Station, Manu, Peru; MacArthur Fellow; Guggenheim Fellow; Pew Fellow; Member, National Academy of Sciences; Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal, National Academy of Sciences.
James Watson , Director, Cold Spring Harbor Lab; Nobel Prize (Medicine); Presidential Medal of Freedom; Member, National Academy of Sciences; Member, Royal Society of London; Copley Medal, Royal Society.
Edward O. Wilson , University Research Professor, Harvard University; Crafoord Prize (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences); National Medal of Science; International Prize for Biology (Government of Japan); Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; Pulitzer Prize (twice); Benjamin Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society.
George Woodwell , Director, Woods Hole Research Center; Founder/Director, Ecosystems Center of the Marine Biological Laboratory; Heinz Award for the Environment; Member, National Academy of Science; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Science; Former Chairman, World Wildlife Fund - U.S.
Richard Wrangham , Professor, Harvard University; MacArthur Fellow; Rivers Medal, Royal Anthropological Institute; Board Member and Former President, Dolphins of Shark Bay Research Foundation; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.