Friends of San Ignacio is a group of people who are dedicated to the protection of San Ignacio lagoon in Baja California,
the last pristine gray whale nursery. It is threatened by Exportada de Sal (ESSA), a joint venture begun by the Mitsubishi Corporation and the Mexican Government If we don't stop it now, it may be too late!

UPDATE - March 2, 2000
Mexico scraps salt works near whale sanctuary
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- Mexico
Thursday canceled a Baja California salt works expansion project that had faced bitter opposition from environmentalists arguing it posed a threat to Latin America's biggest wildlife sanctuary.
The project would have created the world's largest salt works at Laguna San Ignacio, near the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, an important breeding area for gray whales.
The project was headed by salt-exporting company Exportadora de Sal (ESSA) in which Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. holds a 49 percent stake, with the Mexican government controlling the remainder.
"It's a definitive withdrawal (of the project)," said Trade Minister Herminio Blanco, who acts as president of ESSA's board. "Mitsubishi totally supports the Mexican government's decision."
President Ernesto Zedillo said the government had carefully weighed the merits and drawbacks of the project, which ESSA said would have created much-needed jobs in Baja California.
The deciding factor was the "national and world importance and the uniqueness of the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve," Zedillo told a news conference.
"In Mexico, for now, environmental laws have triumphed over economic criteria," Mexican poet and environmentalist Homero Aridjis told Reuters.
Environmentalists said the proposed evaporation basins would have threatened endangered species, including gray whales, sea lions, black sea turtles and prong-horned antelopes.
The warm water San Ignacio Lagoon is one of only four in the world where gray whales go to mate and calve after migrating 6,200 miles from the Bering Straits down the Canadian and U.S. Pacific coast each year.
ESSA already operates a smaller salt works nearby, which ships the bulk of its output to Japan.
The new plant would have involved burrowing out 116 square miles -- twice the size of Washington, D.C. It would have sucked 6,000 gallons per second of water out of the lagoon, perhaps affecting local fish hatcheries, critics said.

Congradulations to everybody on our success! Many thanks to everybody who wrote letters and collected signatures, all our hard work over the past several months has finally paid off! Since the launching of this website, we have collected over 3,000 signatures from all over the world. Thank you, once again!!!
Sherri Schelk, Webmaster