Mexico's Guadalupe Closed to Great White Diving

Guadalupe Island is currently closed. Technically the park is closed for six months every year and opens on July 1st for diving with the white sharks.

This year, the park did not open for the first time in as long as I have been running trips in Mexico. The closure was the final action by the former park director before she resigned. She now works for an NGO trying to take over the operation of Guadalupe from the parks service. Undoing her proclamation is not an easy thing.

If the park service is allowed to get away with arbitrarily and unilaterally keeping a park closed at Guadalupe, they can do it anywhere. Cozumel. Playa Del Carmen. Socorro. Sea of Cortez. There are 190 national parks in Mexico; any one could be the next to be closed. It's hard to imagine.

Ultimately all the stakeholders and operators will prevail in court actions. But it takes time to get in front of the courts, and none of us have been able to get to trial before December.

In the meantime, we are applying for injunctions and working on different political angles. All it takes is one friendly judge, and Guadalupe will be open the next day.

Our boats and crew are on standby, ready to go.

- Mike Lever
Nautilus Liveaboards