View source for San Ignacio Lagoon

{{Short description|Bay in Baja California Sur, Mexico}}{{More citations needed|date=June 2025}}{{Designation list
| designation1 = Ramsar
| designation1_offname = Laguna San Ignacio
| designation1_date = 2 February 2004
| designation1_number = 1341<ref>{{Cite web|title=Laguna San Ignacio|website=[[Ramsar Convention|Ramsar]] Sites Information Service|url=https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/1341|access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref>}}
'''San Ignacio Lagoon''' ({{langx|es|Laguna San Ignacio}}) is a [[lagoon]] located in [[Mulegé Municipality]] of the [[Mexico|Mexican]] state of [[Baja California Sur]], 59 kilometers (37 mi) from [[San Ignacio, Baja California Sur|San Ignacio, Mexico]], and [[Mexican Federal Highway 1|Highway 1]]. It is one of the winter sanctuaries of the [[Gray whale|eastern Pacific gray whale]] (''Eschrichtius robustus'').
[[File:San Ignacio Lagoon.jpg|thumb|San Ignacio Lagoon]]

==History==
After the native population of Baja California had vanished due to disease in the 18th century,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Massey |first1=William C. |title=Tribes and Languages of Baja California |journal=Southwestern Journal of Anthropology |date=1949 |volume=5 |issue=3 |page=272}}</ref> San Ignacio Lagoon was rediscovered in the 19th century by whaling captain, Jared Poole, brother-in-law to [[whaling]] captain [[Charles Melville Scammon]]. Scammon visited the lagoon in 1860 with six whaling vessels, and the subsequent extensive whaling contributed to the near extinction of the [[Gray whale|Pacific gray whale]]. Today, the lagoon is a primary destination for migrating whales, and a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]] where the whales can breed and calve their young undisturbed by humans. This lagoon is also a United Nations [[Biosphere Reserve]] and a migratory [[bird sanctuary]].

==Facts about San Ignacio Lagoon==
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2025}}
With a local community of fewer than 100 inhabitants, residents depend upon fishing and money provided from whale watching as their primary means of support. The lagoon stretches sixteen miles into the desert and has a maximum width of five miles. The lagoon is divided into three sections. The upper lagoon is the shallowest and is the birthing area where pregnant female whales bear their young. The middle lagoon is the corridor where mothers travel with their newborn calves to the lower lagoon. The lower lagoon is where most of the cetaceans reside and where the majority of the social behavior occurs. Here, males and females congregate looking for mates and newborn calves prepare themselves for the long journey north to their summer feeding grounds in the [[Arctic]].

==San Ignacio Lagoon's significance to the world community==
In 1988, [[Mexico]] established the [[El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve]] to include San Ignacio Lagoon, which is [[Latin America]]'s largest wildlife sanctuary. Not only is San Ignacio Lagoon a [[gray whale]] sanctuary, but it is also one of only two undeveloped nurseries and breeding grounds of the Pacific gray whale worldwide. The other one is just 4 hours away, in [[Magdalena Bay]]. San Ignacio Lagoon is also the critical habitat for the ''berrendo'' or [[pronghorn|pronghorn antelope]], a species that is endangered in Mexico, and an important feeding habitat for four of the world's seven species of [[sea turtle]]s: [[leatherback sea turtle|leatherbacks]], [[hawksbill turtle|hawksbills]], [[green sea turtle|green turtles]] and [[olive ridley]]s (all endangered). In 1993 the [[United Nations]] declared San Ignacio Lagoon a [[World Heritage]] site because of its importance to the world community.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Centre |first=UNESCO World Heritage |title=Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/554/ |access-date=2022-08-24 |website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |language=en}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Coord|26|54|N|113|13|W|scale:500000|display=title}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Lagoons of Mexico]]
[[Category:Landforms of Baja California Sur]]
[[Category:Mulegé Municipality]]
[[Category:Pacific Coast of Mexico]]
[[Category:Protected areas of Baja California Sur]]
[[Category:Nature reserves in Mexico]]
[[Category:Ramsar sites in Mexico]]
[[Category:World Heritage Sites in Mexico]]
[[Category:Important Bird Areas of Mexico]]


{{BajaCaliforniaSur-geo-stub}}