Until 2024, only 3% of the seas are protected from extractive activities compared to the 30% committed by the 18 countries that make up the Oceanic Panel for 2030, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UCSD), during the event “A Day for the Seas”, organized in conjunction with the Institute of the Americas and the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation A.C.
In the case of Mexico, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) decrees are the most common government protection measures. The country's total marine area covers 316 million hectares, of which 5.08% are fully protected and 22.47% have some type of protection, UCDS said. The largest are the Revillagigedo National Park, in the North Pacific, and the recently decreed Bajos del Norte National Park, off the coast of Yucatán.
“We talk about areas because planning is needed... Achieving 30% is starting. It's not necessarily getting a healthier place (ocean). We need 30% to survive,” said Fabio Favoretto, a researcher at UCSD.
To expand conservation measures, Favoretto explained, UCSD has worked to locate protected areas that are success stories. The main one is Cabo Pulmo, in Baja California Sur, decreed since 1995.
Until almost 30 years ago, Cabo Pulmo had problems with overfishing and extractive tourism, but communities transformed their relationship with fishing, leaving aside some areas free of catch and compensated for their economic income by promoting ecotourism through diving and whale watching.
Although threats such as large real estate developments and illegal fishing persist, UCSD specialists believe that the AMP can be an example for other fishing regions in the country.
“There are communities that have specific characteristics that may be similar to Cabo Pulmo, for example, they have a diving group, a coastal infrastructure that is not mass tourism and industrial fishing is low,” Favoretto said.
Some that fall into this category are found in the regions of the northern border and the southern zone, in Baja California Sur, and the communities of the Mexican Caribbean in the Yucatan Peninsula. Working with conservation projects in these areas, as happened in Cabo Pulmo, “could protect up to 40% of coastal habitats,” the researcher summarized. 
“Navigating Towards 2030: Protecting and Restoring the Seas”, first presentation of the “A Day by the Seas” event. Photo: Patricia Ramírez.
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Oscar Ramírez Flores, consultant to the World Bank and part of the Problue Initiative, presented the Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OMEC). These are areas with biodiversity that do not have an ANP decree, but that have already been studied, they even have some category of protection and have governance and management to ensure that they are preserved in the long term.
In a study required by the Commission on Protected Natural Areas and funded by international organizations, 15 protected area measures that could contribute to OMEC were evaluated. Some of the main ones were fishing refuge areas, terrestrial maritime zones and critical habitat areas. However, there are still challenges that limit them from complying as an OMEC, Ramírez explained.
“Of all these measures, there could be 15 million hectares (for conservation), but very few of them can be de facto an OMEC because governance schemes or temporality need to be reinforced, such as fishing shelters that have been very much in focus, but that have a temporary nature. That needs to be modified and refined,” said the consultant.
During the event, the specialists agreed on the need for access to information and to work with communities to continue increasing the protection of the seas, as well as reinforcing what has already been decreed.
“Quality is very important rather than quantity,” said Octavio Aburto, a specialist at UCSD.
Panelists of “A Day by the Seas”. Photo: Patricia Ramírez.
In addition to possible protection alternatives, there were also people dedicated to diving in La Paz and Loreto, in Baja California Sur, who highlighted the activity as a measure for the conservation of seas, as has been the case of communities and organizations on marine issues that collaborate on diving teams to carry out citizen science and gather data on the biological situation of the species.
“Divers want to do this... It was essential for the diving industry to have a voice to defend the resources that sustain us and that hand in hand support the rest of the planet,” said Estrella Navarro, a diver at the Cooperative Diving Society of La Paz, Baja California Sur.
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