Ten years after our worldwide campaign stopped plans to industrialize the whale sanctuary at Laguna San Ignacio, campaign supporters share their experiences with these gentle giants
Starting in 1996, NRDC mounted a massive campaign -- with Mexican and international partner organizations, including Grupo de los Cien and the International Fund for Animal Welfare -- to save the last untouched nursery grounds of the Pacific gray whale. Mitsubishi had announced its intent to build a massive saltworks at Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California, Mexico -- the very place that draws gray whales thousands of miles each year to birth and nurse their young.
NRDC's Save the Gray Whale Nursery campaign mobilized scientists, government officials, and the U.N. World Heritage Committee to oppose the plan, and generated more than a million messages of protest from citizens around the world. On March 2, 2000, President Zedillo announced the Mexican government's decision to cancel the plans for the Mitsubishi saltworks.
Since that joyful day, NRDC has been working with other environmental groups and local communities to secure permanent protection for the lagoon.
Get Inspired
The whales inspired Josie Merck and Wendy Larsen to collaborate on The Gray Whales of Baja, a book of art and poetry due out later this year. Click for a preview »
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I was there with my son, and I saw the magic in his face …the sheer joy of it has never left me, and I know it has never left my son.
” - Pierce Brosnan
