Coastal Lagoons

The coastal lagoons and estuaries that characterize Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico along the Sea of Cortez contain a diversity of habitats including mangrove forests, salt-marshes, inter-tidal pools, swamps, freshwater inner lagoons, and brackish and seawater systems.

During the rainy season, the region’s lagoons are habitats and nurseries for postlarvae and a variety of fishery resources, which form the basis of the commercial fishing activity and are also exploited by the rural coastal communities as common property. When these lagoons dry up with the end of the rains, they have traditionally been mined for salt both by individuals gathering it for home consumption as well as by some cooperatives.

The Pacific Coast along the Baja Peninsula and the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, and Nayarit is the most important waterfowl wintering area. Its various and extensive networks of wetlands collectively support one-third of the waterfowl wintering in Mexico, including nearly the entire continental population of Pacific black brant.

In total, 38 species of waterfowl occur in Mexico, either as permanent residents or seasonal visitors. According to aerial surveys conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, several regions in Mexico serve as critical winter resorts to more than 15 percent of the continent’s waterfowl during the fall and winter months. In Ensenada Pabellones and Laguna Santa Maria in central Sinaloa coast north of Mazatlan, 29 species of shorebirds have been recorded with estimates of half a million birds of whci the western Sandpiper comprises more than 80%. This illustrates the tremendous importance of these Mexican Lagoon systems to the non breeding wintering grounds for local and migratory species, and the need for conservation efforts that involve Canada, the United States and Mexico.