Mitsubishi/ESSA Cause Sea Turtle Deaths
by Nathan LaBudde
International Marine Mammal Project

In early January, reports from Baja, Mexico relayed news of an environmental disaster at Guerrero Negro Lagoon. Endangered Black Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas agasizzi) had been washing up dead on the lagoon’s shores since mid- December. Local fishermen were also reporting a simultaneous die-off of mollusks, sardines and other marine species.

Environmentalists on both sides of the US-Mexico border suspected that the massive Mitsubishi/Exportadora de Sal (ESSA) industrial salt production facility at Guerrero Negro was involved.

ESSA, jointly owned by Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and it’s Mexican government-owned partner, is currently battling Mexican locals and environmentalists over a proposal to build a 116 square-mile industrial saltworks at the pristine gray whale nursery at San Ignacio Lagoon, [See “Bye-Bye, Baja,” cover story, Summer ’98 EIJ].

On January 8, officials from Mexico’s Federal Attorney General for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) arrived at Guerrero Negro to begin investigations. PROFEPA officials collected only 94 decaying turtle carcasses for necropsies, despite accounts that placed the number of dead turtles at close to 300.

“When PROFEPA inspectors, guided by local fishermen, began their search, many of the tortugas (turtles) had disappeared, in particular those located in proximity to the ESSA salt facility,” reports poet-activist Homero Aridjis, President of Mexico’s Grupo de los Cien (Group of 100).

Eyewitness accounts that ESSA workers “removed sea turtle corpses from beaches near company’s installations, trying to erase evidences” strengthened suspicions that Mitsubishi/ESSA was engaged in a cover-up.

In the following weeks, some officials from PROFEPA and other agencies, began offering scenarios pointing possible blame away from Mitsubishi/ESSA. El Nińo and red tide algal blooms were cited as possible causes. The most prevalent alternative theory proposed that local shrimpers had entered the lagoon and poached the turtles but were forced to dump their illegal cargo overboard when their ship ran aground on a sandbar. It became apparent that the truth about what had happened at Guerrero Negro would have to wait until completion of the government investigation.

Historically, accidents at the Guerrero Negro saltworks are seldom noticed by the outside world. In 1984, Mitsubishi/ESSA spilled nearly 4 million liters of diesel fuel. In 1985, another spill covered 3.5 hectares (8.6 acres) of marine coast adjacent to Puerto El Chaparrito. Video footage obtained by Grupo de los Cien shows miles of dead fish piled on the banks of adjacent Ojo de Liebre Lagoon as toxic brine from the saltworks seeps into the lagoon.

This summer, as Mexican investigators and scientists were finalizing their investigations, news came that another spill at Guerrero Negro had occurred on May 1. The release of more than 16,000 cubic meters of toxic salt brine caused another mass fish dieoff.

On July 14, PROFEPA finally issued its 500-plus-page report, which concluded: “A spill causing an elevated concentration of saline and other minerals which provoked an osmotic shock or variation in the salinity of the sea water was the cause of death of 94 sea turtles.”

The PROFEPA report said that the hull of a Mitsubishi/ESSA barge transporting toxic brine had ruptured inside the lagoon. Sea turtles and other aquatic life died when ingesting lagoon water contaminated by concentrated salt, lead, magnesium, mercury and other industrial effluent.

Mitsubishi/ESSA maintains “We have 40 years of successful stewardship at Guerrero Negro. We operate in harmony with the environment,” but the PROFEPA report confirms that this claim is false.

In Mexico, it is a criminal (jailable) offense to kill sea turtles. While civil charges are now being brought against Mitsubishi/ESSA, it remains to be seen whether Mexican Federal Prosecutors will pursue criminal charges. Mitsubishi/ESSA can no longer prevent local fisherfolk, whose livelihoods depend on a healthy lagoon, from exposing environmental crimes to an increasingly aware global community.

What You Can Do: Contact Earth Island’s International Marine Mammal Project [(415) 788-3666 x147] for a FREE set of “Save San Ignacio Lagoon/Gray Whale” postcards, pre-addressed to Mitsubishi and Mexican Government officials. Please write a message regarding the sea turtle die-off in the space provided and mail.