Megatourism, intensive fishing, and sewage, sewage, sewage

To help save the reefs of Mexico, get active with these groups:

Center for Coastal Studies, Texas A&M University

ReefKeeper International

Wildlife Conservation Society

Fish Poll: Marine biologist Carlos Gonzales- Gandara prepares to dive for a fish census at Alacranes Reef on the north coast of Yucatan, for the Coral Reef Ecology Studies Laboratory at Mexico's Instituto Politecnico Nacional. Photo: Rodrigo Garza

Tourist-driven coastal development has depleted mangroves and coral reefs on Mexico's Atlantic and Pacific coasts, reefs which are also threatened by spearfishing, overfishing, siltation from deforestation, and farm runoff of fertilizers and herbicides. Now there's a new enemy: rapid wasting disease, which can spread several inches across a coral head in a single day.

The government is at least aware of the problems: In June 1997, Mexico joined Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras in a pact calling for protecting the massive coral reefs each country has on its Pacific coast. And in March 1998, Mexico's attorney general fined Norwegian Cruise Lines $35,000 plus compensatory damages for damaging a 4,400-square-foot section of the Great Maya Reef, the world's second-largest, off the Yucatan coast the year before.

Tackling the widespread problem of untreated sewage, former Biosphere 2 denizen Mark Nelson has been testing a low-tech treatment system near Cancún. It uses gravel, gravity, microbes, and plants to turn sewage into relatively harmless plant food, removing nearly 100 percent of fecal coliform bacteria and 80 percent of other harmful nutrients which otherwise would contribute to poisoning corals and boosting competing algae.