Protecting the “Aquarium of the World” From a Gas Industry Takeover
The fossil fuel industry wants to turn the Gulf of California, home to thousands of marine species, into a gas hub. We’re partnering with environmental advocates in Mexico to stop it.
In a narrow strip of ocean south of the California-Mexico border, humpback whales converge alongside playful dolphins, sea lions, and thousands of other marine species.
The Gulf of California is an UNESCO-recognized biodiversity hotspot in northwest Mexico. A third of the world’s marine mammals make their home here, including the largest animal in the world: the blue whale. The ocean conservationist Jacques Cousteau once called the Gulf “the aquarium of the world.”
A humpback whale breaching in the Gulf of California. (Ray Hems / Getty Images)
The fossil fuel industry is trying to make it the next gas shipping hub of the world.
Oil and gas companies see the Gulf as a strategically shorter route for shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S. to Asian markets. Yet heavy industry activity would wreak havoc on the Gulf’s fragile ecosystem, turning an evolutionary marvel into an engine for fossil fuel profits. That’s why local Mexican environmental groups are challenging the projects in court.
Earthjustice is partnering with these groups to stop the U.S. fossil fuel industry from sending ecological destruction across the border.
“People have built their lives around the fact that this is an incredibly beautiful and biodiverse hotspot,” says Ava Ibanez, senior attorney at Earthjustice’s oceans program. “The fact that a handful of industry executives are trying to destroy all of that is completely outrageous.”
A breaching mobula ray in the Gulf of California. (Wildestanimal / Getty Images)
The Aquarium of the World
Whales, dolphins, and many other marine species migrate to the Gulf to feed, find mates, and raise their young. Eleven species of whales occur in the Gulf, including blue, fin, sperm, and humpbacks. The clear waters also host colonies of California sea lions, loggerhead turtles, sharks, flying mobula rays, fur seals, and nearly 900 species of fish.
Much of this diversity is due to a unique mix of oceanic currents that meet in the Gulf, producing a hefty blend of nutrient-rich foods like phytoplankton. This has resulted in a variety of plant and animal species that don’t occur anywhere else in the world, like the endangered totoaba, which can grow to 6 feet long.
A browncheek blenny (Acanthemblemaria crockeri) peers from its hole on a reef on Isla Espiritu Santo near La Paz, Mexico. Browncheek blennies are rarely found outside the Gulf of California. (Brent Durand / Getty Images)
The Gulf also serves as a welcome refuge for endangered sea life whose habitats elsewhere have been targeted for oil and gas drilling.
The Threats
Two LNG proposals are currently underway in the Gulf.
The largest project, called Saguaro Energia, would construct a 500-mile-long pipeline from Texas’s fracked gas capitol, the Permian Basin, to Puerto Libertad. There, a new liquefaction plant would cool the gas into liquid. Another project, named AMIGO, would be the world’s largest floating LNG plant – a technique that carries additional risks in hurricane prone areas.
Both projects would ship methane gas on gargantuan tankers through the Gulf into Asia, threatening whales with underwater collisions and harmful ballast water discharges. Ship collisions are a leading cause of whale deaths, especially near fossil fuel routes. The tankers also bring deafening noise pollution, which disrupts the whales’ ability to communicate, find mates, and reproduce.
A whale shark feeds on plankton and krill near the surface of the Gulf of California. (Brent Durand / Getty Images)
A third project, Vista Pacifico, has been scrapped. Due to a combination of large public pushback from Mexican communities, environmental groups, and the United Nations, along with regulatory hurdles, the project owners suspended the project in 2025.
These projects would also set back Mexico’s climate goals. Methane, a greenhouse gas, is over 80 times more potent than carbon at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Methane emissions mainly happen during transport through pipelines, rather than its end use. The gas industry exploits this distinction to push a greenwashing “natural” gas narrative.
The People Fighting to Save the Gulf
Protestors march in Mexico City in 2025 to oppose proposed gas projects in the Gulf of California. The project would harm whales and other marine life in the gulf. (Gustavo Graf / Greenpeace)
These proposals have drawn major pushback from the Mexican public.
Large protests in support of whales have flooded the streets, and thousands of people have signed petitions to protect the Gulf from destructive industry. Multiple Mexican environmental groups have challenged the LNG projects in court, dealing major setbacks to their development.
Nuestro Futuro is a youth-led organization committed to climate action. Inspired by the global embrace of the rights of nature, the group argues that whales in the Gulf are protected under Mexico’s environmental laws. Their legal action has resulted in a pause on tanker traffic in the Gulf of California related to Saguaro Energia.
“Establishing the rights of whales means recognizing that they are not ‘things,’” says Nora Cabrero Velasco, executive director of Nuestro Futuro. “They are not just part of the landscape or collateral damage. They are living beings with their own value that the law should protect.”
Commensal shrimp on a starfish in the Gulf of California. (Todd Winner / Getty Images)
The Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) is the oldest Mexican environmental law firm. CEMDA has advocated against the AMIGO project and challenged U.S pipeline permits for Saguaro Energia. It also produced reports analyzing Saguaro’s significant greenhouse gas emissions and collision risks for Gulf whales.
“In recent years, we have seen LNG projects emerge as a serious threat to one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet,” says Margarita Campuzano, director of communications at CEMDA. “These megaprojects bring multiple negative impacts, including air and marine pollution, underwater noise, and methane emissions. All of this poses significant risks to the region’s marine biodiversity.”
Northwest Environmental Defense (DAN) is a regional organization based in Baja, California. DAN has brought legal challenges against Saguaro and pushed UNESCO bodies to advocate for the Gulf’s marine species. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has now called for rigorous environmental impact analyses that assess the impacts of LNG projects.
“For communities adapting to climate change, conserving biodiversity is an act of faith that life can remain sustainable,” says Cecilia García, director of DAN’s strategic communications. “It embodies the hope that we can be better stewards of this planet. Giving up on protecting biodiversity in Mexico means giving up on the effort to restore the planet’s lost balance.”
The International Program partners with organizations and communities around the world to establish, strengthen, and enforce national and international legal protections for the environment and public health.
Earthjustice’s Oceans Program uses the power of the law to safeguard imperiled marine life, reform fisheries management, stop the expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling, and increase the resiliency of ocean ecosystems to climate change.