(cappella music) - [David] 50 years ago, Baja California, seemed an unknown a deserted place.

And the gulf of California, a marine wonderland of inexhaustible bounty.

Development and crowds arrived.

And now are quickly exhausting local resources and undermining the peninsula's ecological richness.

Now Mexicans are teaming up with international experts and fighting back.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for In the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Agnese Haury.

Funding for "In the Americas" with David Yetman was also provided by the Guilford Fund.

(upbeat music) (cappella music) - National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions team up on boats with scientific basis and conservation in mind.

We are leaving from San Jose del Cabo in Baja California and we'll journey up to what they call the East Cape region, which has been until recently a pretty wild region with very steep hills, mountains coming out, with different habitats, but primarily one of the greatest marine habitats in the world that is now endangered by development.

People were getting together here from both Mexico and the United States and other countries to try to figure out how we can continue to maintain this place.

It's an astonishingly diverse place and needs to be looked at, examined, and protected.

- It was all about bringing people together from different walks of life who are interested in different aspects of the environment and local culture and community to work together to enjoy together and come up with ways that we can help protect and restore the resources and communities of the East Cape of Baja California.

Is the fastest growing economy in all of Mexico and a lot of that growth is beginning to move up toward La Paz along the East Cape region.

A lot of the development here in Cowell has been quite destructive and quite consumptive.

And we want to try to see what we can do to promote a kind of development that isn't quite as extractive and consumptive, much more regenerative and sustainable.

- [David] A good example of the power of real estate and development interests over the Mexican government can be seen in Cabo San Lucas at the extreme tip of Baja California.

What was a small resort town 40 or 50 years ago is now a place of simply spectacular, breathtaking and disturbing development in all sides and in all directions.

(bright guitar music) Hugging the southern tip of the peninsula and the coast northwards along the East side, a full day's road trip brings us to an expansive bay and a much older city.

This is the Bay of La Paz in Southeastern Baja, California.

La Paz is a city of about 300,000, the capital of the state of Baja California South.

The peninsula of Baja California is one of the two longest in the world.

It's about 700 miles in length.

Skinny and mostly desert.

But the gulf of California itself is an extraordinary body of water.

Marine wise, it is one of the richest, if not the richest body for fisheries in the world, or at least it was.

- This beautiful body of water who used to be the source of food for centuries for all the people who lived here basically lost the productivity.

By the late 80s, it had pretty much been abandoned from fishing and the community had to go fish outside, farther places and so on.

- It was historically of extraordinary abundance of both fish and shellfish marine life, but it was over-fished.

And by the late 20th century, virtually all the fishing was gone and the government declared an embargo on fishing.

They closed it to fishing.

And what the natives of the area who are long-term fishermen found that they could do was to bring in the seed, the eggs of these shellfish that they call acha caelle acha another one called catarina, which almost went extinct and plant them here.

(bright guitar music) - The seeds were planted in two areas, here and over here.

After the seeds started to grow, we began the monitoring process.

We had a 90% success rate with the scallops garros stature.

We harvested them over the last two years.

These three are the different kinds of scallops we plant, grow, harvest, and take care of here in the bay.

- Our grandparents and my parents spoke of this as an abundant cove with many species of scallops, clams, and fish.

There were sharks and turtles.

Through overfishing, the marine life disappeared.

We realized that we were doing the same things that our parents did, we were overfishing here.

When we decided to stop fishing, that is when the bay started to recover.

Our dream is to plant and harvest the scalps and clams and we will succeed.

- Over the last three years, communities from several parts of Mexico have come here to learn about the story or to talk with them and basically to get the motivation.

The desire that is possible to bring back your ecosystem if you become organized and you care.

Once the oysters and clams and the cajos began to grow, what we have been seeing increasingly is for example, sea turtles are coming in and actually are spawning in these areas.

In the 60s, most of the fisherman were sea turtle hunters.

Then this is how population collapsed.

And now that the turtles are back, part of the community said, "Hey, this has a lot of value for the ecotourism."

What used to be a hunting activity now has become an ecotourism activity and a sustainable activity to bring tourists to enjoy sea turtles.

The fact that we have a population of whale sharks coming here in La Paz also and getting very close to this area, also is an indication that the ecosystem is getting healthier.

- Our children and our grandchildren are here and our great grandchildren are coming.

We want to leave them an inheritance of a healthy bay and not to repeat what our parents and we did when we overfished, overexploited the marine resource.

We won't let the bay die.

(bright cappella music) - [David] But the recovery of those depleted resources requires more than traditional solutions.

Marine experts are turning to modern technology and investment to supplement the old ways.

- We're trying to move marine aquaculture away from a closed base.

We're here three miles off shore where we have pristine water conditions.

And we have strong currents, very well oxygenated water, and that enables the fish to thrive.

And we're raising a very special fish endemic to the Sea of Cortez, an iconic fish as well only seen in Mexico and it's called the totoaba.

It's the biggest of the Sciaeni fish.

We're raising it here and we're also raising the Pacific Red Snapper.

We're a fully integrated company in terms of production where we have our own hatchery, we have our broodstock, where we produce our own fish.

We raise it here in our off shore pens, which are submersible.

(water bubbling) (gentle music) Red Snapper, it's called huachinango in Mexico.

And this species for the very first time in the world, we are the first company that is able to produce it commercially cycle round.

Meaning, we were able after seven years of R&D to reproduce them and then to raise them in commercial level.

So we're gonna see 35,000 fish swimming, 300 ground watching angles, and they should be ready for market size in around four months time.

The other cage that we're gonna be swimming is a cage that has 35,000, totoabas and they're close to six kilograms in size.

This is a special cage because there are some customers and some chefs in Mexico city and Monterrey and Guadalajara, which are our target markets, that want bigger fish for their filets.

The totoaba is an iconic fish.

It's endangered because it went close to extinction in the early 70s.

The Mexican government set a ban on fishing and ever since then, it's protected and now it's being illegally fished, illegally poached for their swim bladders.

Our fish are only harvested and commercialized within Mexico, it cannot be exported.

And we have a full traceability program.

Any customer can know when that fish was produced, when it was harvested and where it comes from.

They're calling the totoaba now the cocaine of the sea because of the high price of the black market price of their swim bladders, which is a delicacy in Asia.

Of course it has nothing to do with the Mexican diet.

We're not in the swim bladder business, we're in the healthy protein production business.

And aquaculture is helping restoring this totoaba species.

So far we've released close to 130,000 juvenile totoaba into the Sea of Cortez in the past five years.

In our case, the production cycle takes one year from egg to harvest and where they reach three kilograms in size, which is the size when we start selling them to the Mexican market.

(gentle music) - Back on the Lindblad, we continue North to a most curious place.

A little island oddly popular with sea lions.

(bright cappella music) At the North end of the great island, Espirirtu Santo, North of La Paz are these little islands, they call them Isla des, which means kind of little islands.

For some reason that maybe the sea lions themselves know, it's a fabulous place for them to congregate, to raise their young and to hang out much of a year.

And so it's become very popular for people of marine interest to come up here and swim with the sea lions and watch them in action.

(sea lion barking) Young sea lions who are the most inquisitive, curious, and friendly of marine mammals anywhere, They'd like to see you coming, and the moms don't seem to mind at all.

Sometimes the pops might become a little bit intimidating.

Sea lion bulls are not only territorial, but they like to maintain their harems.

And so they are very protective of their particular bunch when other males come around and sometimes they might even think that humans are involved in taking over their territory.

We take the boat South, following the edge of the Spiritu Santo island.

Finally, the captain lets us venture ashore.

This is my kind of place, the Sonoran Desert.

Even though we are more than 1,000 kilometers from Arizona.

(bright music) Here in the Sonoran desert, most of Baja California is in that desert.

Not all of it, most of it.

It is generally a very dry desert but it has times of rainfall, which produces a vegetation so lush, particularly after rain, that many people say it can't be a desert.

There are too many plants, it's too green.

This year, just exploding in a few weeks are these Daturas, these marvelously beautiful plants who have exotic poisons that have killed way too many people.

All around me there are a wolfberries growing, there are bursaras growing, there are vines everywhere And there were plenty of nuts that I have to keep out of my face.

It comes without abundance of rain which could stop at any time and then the place turn brown once again quickly.

(gentle guitar music) Most remarkable at all on this dry island of survival is that in spite of three inches of rain, these cacti not only survive, but grow and can grow very quickly.

These they call cardones can get up to 50 feet tall elsewhere in Baja California.

They're supremely adapted.

This green is actually stuff that carries on photosynthesis so the plant can grow.

This is a column of water.

And in the dew that condenses on them, 'cause we're near the ocean, the dew trickles down to the roots and provides them with water.

So even though it's very dry area, with that condensation that happens probably half the year, they can absorb that water and grow as if they were in an area that got 20 or 30 inches of rain a year.

Four weeks ago, it rained very hard here.

And this little flat filled up with water that stood here.

And because there's a lot of saline material in the soil, the water did not penetrate.

It just stayed here as a gumbo.

Now it has dried out and leaves these very attractive artistic cracks.

But the plants take advantage of the cracks and their seeds sprout out of the cracks and take advantage then of the light and more of the rain to come.

I'm standing here by a wolfberry here, which I can identify by the salty taste of the leaves but it gives a trace of how deep the water was in this little white area here.

It's probably 18 to 20 inches above where the ground is now that had to take a very hard fast rain to fill that up, and the plants think this is heaven.

- This is a desert.

Abuts a very, very rich sea.

The resources of this desert region and of this marine environment are declining rapidly because of rapid development in this region and rapid expansion of hotel resorts.

Those resorts of course consume huge amounts of electricity and water.

And this is effectively an island here.

Almost everything we consume in this area is brought from the mainland of Mexico.

There's limited amounts of resources to sustain human life.

And what we are seeing now is that natural life, nature is suffering as a result.

(bright cappella music) - [David] About halfway along the coast between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas, we find an ecological hotspot.

It's called Cabo Pulmo.

- [Martin] There's a very unique place in the center of this southern East cape, it's called Cabo Pulmo.

And it has become a symbol of what we need to do in many other places around the world.

It's a small national park created by the local community and then also with scientists and the government to try to bring back what was once there, which was very abundant and diverse marine resources.

- [Man] Working with the villagers to give up fishing and let the area rest, astonishing results have occurred.

And it is now a place where divers from all over the world come to see the magnificence of a coral reef that has recovered and is blooming.

(bright cappella music) - We are heading North West around the cave into the national park.

Cabo Pulmo National Park.

It's a study that I can't wait to see because here and now a richness that used to be in the gulf but had disappeared almost completely, and now with a rest of 25 years, a reef that has come back to life and I have to see it to be able to believe it.

It's a story that can encourage conservationists everywhere that changes can be made for the better.

(boat engine roaring) Scientists discovered that this is the biggest coral reef in the Pacific Northeast region.

So this is an important ecosystem.

But it used to be fished a lot, but by local fishermen.

(boat engine roaring) - The decision to stop fishing in this area was made basically by my father and my uncles.

Initially, my grandfather was not in agreement because fishing was their livelihood for their entire lives.

But after they saw how this area recovered after four to five years of no fishing, they began to view things differently and they began to embrace the concept of a protected area, such as the one we have here in Cabo Pulmo.

(speaking in foreign language) - Traditionally in the summer, the most important fishing here was the hunting of sea turtles.

Not just for the meat, but for the oil, which formerly provided fuel for energy such as lighting lanterns, cooking and for heat.

The families also hunted sharks.

The meat was salted and preserved.

It did not need to be frozen for eating later or during times of scarcity.

Until all fishing was banned here, people here in Cabo Pulmo and the surrounding areas realized the sea turtle populations were greatly diminished.

- [David] 25 years later after the park, what changes are there now?

- You can see the reef in better shape.

They discover that the great predators came back like big roopers, snappers, and even sharks are coming back.

The reef is reborn and their lives are better.

(water splashing) - Our first dive stop will be at a sunken ship known as El Vencedor or The Victorious.

We are going to plant ourselves at the bottom in the sand.

The bull sharks are very territorial.

So to protect ourselves for observation of this top predator, this is the best way to get close to them.

- The smaller sharks are the most curious so they're the ones that approached us at first.

The larger ones are the females.

When they see us as a small dive group, they began to approach.

Some of these large ones can reach over three meters in length.

The existence of these top predators in the food chain is an indicator that the marine life is recovering, completing the food here.

Another reflection of the recovery and help of the ecosystem here in the national park is the increase in biomass of the schools of fish, not just here, but also in surrounding areas.

This time of year the schools of mackerel are in reproduction mode.

The darker ones are males and the lighter ones are the females.

We can see thousands, tens of thousands of them.

And the schools can go on for kilometers in length without us ever seen the end of these masses.

Sometimes we will also see large schools of snapper and yellowtail but this school here is the most impressive in numbers and size.

Here in the park, we can always see large schools of fish but it is this time of year that is most impressive.

- We are on the Southeastern coast of the Baja California peninsula.

It's over 700 miles long and we're probably 680 miles of that in the southern part of it.

Farthest North coral reef anywhere in the Americas.

It's a special privilege.

(bright cappella music) - We're mapping the biological resources of this area, both Marine and terrestrial to try to help the authorities make sure that development doesn't happen in places that are highly sensitive, including things like places where aquifers get recharged.

National parks and protected areas can help make that happen.

Innovation and marine aquaculture, for example, can make that happen.

One is a natural way to restore living resources, which is a protected area we call Cabo Pulmo.

The other one is working with local cooperatives, fishing cooperatives to help them organize around the restoration of resources they once took for granted and now are having to restore proactively to restore their way of life as fishers.

So we live in a finite planet, but we really have to become much better stewards of the planet, the landscapes that we all depend upon, the resources we all depend upon.

And we're trying to do that in this very special place called the Sea of Cortez and southern Baja.

(bright cappella music) - Lindblad expedition teams up with national geographic to take people to parts of the world they otherwise probably would not see, areas that are in need of conservation activity.

And Baja California, and the Gulf of California, or one of those places.

Here are people, scientists, researchers, conservationists, come to see what can be done to make sure that this relatively pristine environment stays that way and one of the world's most strangely diverse areas remains a wonder to everyone who comes here.

Join us next time "In the Americas" with me, David Yetman.

For most of us, people celebrating just before the 40 days of Lent remind us of Mardi Gras in new Orleans or Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

But throughout the Americas in many hundreds of cities and towns, at carnival time, celebrations erupt.

Mexico has numerous siestas.

Two of them in southern Mexico are discipling.

(gun exploding) When you get on a boat on the ocean, the wind could get pretty fierce and I would hate to lose my Australian bush hat so I put on this kind of silly floppy hat but it does its function.

And that is to keep the sun off my head.

The other one is prettier and it's mean.

This one, hardly.

(bright cappella music) (ominous music) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for "In the Americas" with David Yetman was provided by Agnese Haury.

Funding for "In the Americas" with David Yetman was also provided by the Guilford Fund.

(bright cappella music) Copies of this and other episodes of "In the Americas" with David Yetman are available from the Southwest Center.

To order, call, 1-800-937-8632.

Please mention the episode number and program title.

Please be sure to visit us at intheamericas.com or intheamericas.org.

(bright guitar music)