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Ojo de Liebre Lagoon (also known as Scammon's Lagoon), translated into English as "hare eye lagoon", is a coastal
lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...
located in
Mulegé Municipality Mulegé is a city in Mulegé Municipality, Baja California Sur, situated on the Gulf of California. Located on the Gulf of California, the population was 3,821 according to the Mexican census of 2010. History Indigenous peoples had lived in ...
near the town of
Guerrero Negro Guerrero Negro is the largest town located in the municipality of Mulegé in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur (BCS). It had a population of 14,316 in the 2015 census. The town is served by Guerrero Negro Airport. Whale Festival The ...
in the northwestern Baja California Sur state of
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. It lies approximately halfway between the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula and the U.S.-Mexico border, opening onto the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
. The lagoon is within the Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve
UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
, and is a Ramsar wetlands site. It also is the site of the biggest commercial
saltworks A saltern is an area or installation for making salt. Salterns include modern salt-making works (saltworks), as well as hypersaline waters that usually contain high concentrations of halophilic microorganisms, primarily haloarchaea but also othe ...
plant in the world. It is an important
habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
for the reproduction and wintering of the gray whale and
harbor seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared se ...
, as well as other marine mammals including the
California sea lion The California sea lion (''Zalophus californianus'') is a coastal eared seal native to western North America. It is one of six species of sea lions. Its natural habitat ranges from southeast Alaska to central Mexico, including the Gulf of C ...
,
northern elephant seal The northern elephant seal (''Mirounga angustirostris'') is one of two species of elephant seal (the other is the southern elephant seal). It is a member of the family Phocidae (true seals). Elephant seals derive their name from their great siz ...
and
blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...
. Four species of endangered marine turtles reproduce there. It is an important refuge for waterfowl in the winter. Encompassing both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major salt plant, Laguna Ojo de Liebre embodies the diverse worlds of natural habitat and industrialization. Tourism, now closely controlled, was formerly a threat to the gray whales.


Geography

Laguna Ojo de Liebre is a large, shallow salty watery habitat that is wide, long and from in depth. Relatively deep channels cut through the lagoon between its broad
intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...
flats. The climate is dry and warm; the annual temperature ranges from 18 °C and 22 °C. Annual rainfall can vary from none to 200 mm. The lagoon is surrounded by coastal dunes ranging from in height, which support an unstable community of vegetation, and sandy beaches, some of them with shoals.


Geology

Geological studies indicated that Laguna Ojo de Liebre began as a
pocket beach A pocket beach is usually a small beach that is isolated between two headlands. There is typically very little or no exchange of sediment between the pocket beach and adjacent shorelines. Pocket beaches can be natural or artificial. Many natural ...
on the
coastal plain A coastal plain is flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and a piedmont area. Some of the largest coastal plains are in Alaska and the southeastern United States. The Gulf Co ...
of Baja California at a time when the ocean was some 12 meters lower than today's level. Tidal changes resulted in the formation of inlets and
sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...
from nearby river gradually built a barrier to form the lagoon.


Salt works

Industrialization is leaving its mark on the lagoon and surrounding area. There is a rectangular evaporation pond for the harvesting of salt, some large salt flats, and other barriers and channels built to enclose and flood shallow brine pans on the eastern side of the lagoon (yellow-greenish in color in the picture at right ). The Ojo de Liebre lagoon has the biggest
saltworks A saltern is an area or installation for making salt. Salterns include modern salt-making works (saltworks), as well as hypersaline waters that usually contain high concentrations of halophilic microorganisms, primarily haloarchaea but also othe ...
plant in the world – Exportadora de Sal S.A. (ESSA). The company makes salt from seawater which is pumped into concentration ponds measuring 33,000 hectares. The salt plant creates an effluent called bittern (a liquor remaining after salt-boiling) that is discharged into the lagoon. In December 1997, 94 green turtles were found dead weeks after the company discharged bitterns into the lagoon. The bitterns were investigated for fluoride content and were found to contain over 100 mg per liter. ESSA had earlier claimed that the bitterns contained the same salts present as seawater, only more concentrated (20-fold). F- was found to be 60.5 times higher than F- in sea water.


History

In December 1857,
Charles Melville Scammon Charles Melville Scammon (1825–1911) was a 19th-century whaleman, naturalist, and author. He was the first to hunt the gray whales of both Laguna Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio Lagoon, the former also known as "Scammon's Lagoon" after him. In ...
, in the brig ''Boston'', accompanied by the schooner-tender ''Marin'', under Lefft, first entered Laguna Ojo de Liebre to hunt the gray whales breeding there. They caught twenty. Scammon returned to the lagoon the next winter (1858–59), this time with the bark ''Ocean Bird'' and the schooner-tenders ''A.M. Simpson'' and ''Kate'', under Easton and Hale. He caught forty-seven cows, which produced of oil. He was accompanied by six other vessels (five barks and one schooner), which obtained an additional of oil (about 150 whales). A high of eleven vessels visited the lagoon in the winter of 1859-60, but they obtained considerably less oil— (c. 140 whales). Eight vessels (all sent by U.S. merchants, except one: the
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n brig ''Constantine'', under Otto Wilhelm Lindholm) the next season got even less: a little over from about 90 whales. Only a few ships visited the lagoon the following three seasons—in the first season they obtained ; the second ; and in the third only about . When the bark ''Louisa'' visited the lagoon in the winter of 1872-73 she only obtained of oil. It was abandoned after that.


See also

* *


References


External links

* * * *UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Whale Sanctuary of El Vazcaino, Mexico
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ojo de Liebre, Lagoon Lagoons of Mexico Landforms of Baja California Sur Mulegé Municipality Pacific Coast of Mexico Protected areas of Baja California Sur Ramsar sites in Mexico Saltworks World Heritage Sites in Mexico Important Bird Areas of Mexico