MEXICO: Mitsubishi ditches plans to build saltworks in whale breeding ground

Public pressure to abandon plans to build the saltworks – close to a lagoon described by environmentalists as the last pristine breeding ground for the gray whale – reached its highest point last July when a Mexican-led coalition against the saltworks bought newspaper ads bearing the names and signatures of some of the world’s most presitigious living scientists. The adverts ran in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Mexico’s Reforma (see related story).

UNESCO also become involved in the debate because the lagoon where the gray whale breeds, the San Ignacio Lagoon, is a UNESCO World Heritage site (see related story).

Mitsubishi is part of a consortium that already operates a saltworks in Baja. Plans to build the now-aborted second saltworks in Baja began five years ago.