Owners Info

Posted on June 10, 2022

Welcome to the 2nd Quarter edition of the Sonoran Sea Resort HOA newsletter.

Our Sonoran Sea Resort HOA newsletter is issued on a quarterly basis. We encourage you to connect with other owners via the Facebook groupnote this group is an owners group, not monitored or run by the HOA (https://www.facebook.com/groups/SonoranSeaHomeOwners) and sign up for the HOA updates via Vivook in order to get real time updates on our resort in the interim.

If you haven’t yet, please sign up for the owners section on the SonoranSeaResort.org website. Minutes, documents, newsletters and other information are available on the site. You can register for the site at this link:  https://www.sonoransearesort.org/owners/register.

If you’d like to suggest content (or better yet volunteer) for the Newsletter, please send an email to newsletter@sonoransearesort.org.
Important Dates

HOA AC Meetings: 3rd Tues Each Month


HOA SC Meetings: 2nd Tues Qtly (Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec)


Next GOM (General Owners Meeting):
Sat. Nov 5, 2022
Deep Dive Meetings, Fri. Nov 4th.

AC News – President: Dan Cooney

My first month of being in the AC President position has flown by. Firstly, thank you for entrusting me with the AC President position, and especially thank you to those who gave warm words of encouragement. I spent several days with our amazing staff to learn more about the operations side of our resort. One certainly gains a different perspective when going through maintenance rooms, crawling through basements, walking security rounds, and seeing all the work our staff is doing every day. I’m so appreciative of the great team we have.

 

For those of you who were not able to attend the April GOM, let me introduce myself. My wife, Kim and I have been owners at the Sea for 4 years (W803). We have 2 teenage boys who enjoy their beach time, while Kim and I dream of our future retirement here. In the meantime, we live in Gilbert AZ, and travel down often to get in our beach fix. My professional background is in engineering, where I have worked for Intel for 22 years. My positions over the years have been in various Industrial and Software Engineering roles. The underlying theme in all these roles has been making improvements while reducing cost and waste. I believe in an engineering mindset of collaboration and data driven decisions. In addition to owning at the Sea, we have been owners at the Princesa for 8 years, and at the Spa for 3 years.

 

Thank you to the owners who participated in the April 30, 2022, HOA meeting. Draft minutes from this meeting are posted on the Sonoran Sea Owner’s website and final minutes will be posted once they are notarized. There were several voting items which were approved (Non-Paying Guest policy, Long-term renter impact fees, Condo Key Access Policy, and Balcony railing replacement). Please take a moment and review the minutes on the Owners website. Please reach out to the HOA office for any questions with these changes.

 

We continue to prioritize improvements and strive to achieve the four key principles for our resort – Safety, Professionally Serviced, Well-Maintained, & Financially Solvent. The monthly AC meeting minutes and quarterly SC meeting minutes are posted on the Sonoran Sea Owner’s website. These are great resources to see what’s happening with the resort.

 

As we look forward to the future, if you have expertise or would like to volunteer to work on any future project proposals, please reach out to the HOA office.

 

Please read on for the latest updates at the Sonoran Sea. If you have any newsletter suggestions, please email newsletter@sonoransearesort.org.

 

Best wishes to you and yours.

 

Dan Cooney

 

AC – President

SC News – Chairman:

The SC currently does not have a chair.


SC – Chairman

Head of Maintenance: Rodrigo Ruiz

As always, our maintenance staff has been busy keeping our resort up to date. Below is some of the work that was done over the last quarter.


Please contact the HOA office with any questions.

Planned Projects

Pet Area Refresh East Side

Planned Projects

Pet Area Refresh East Side

Maintenance

Garden Areas Painting

Maintenance

New Elevator Mats

Maintenance

Kayak Racks Repainted

Planned Projects

Red Roof Waterproofing

Maintenance

Sand Applied Around Beach Wall

Maintenance

Gravel in Garden Areas

Maintenance

Gravel in Garden Areas

Planned Projects

New Gym Weights

Maintenance

Stairwell Floor Signs

Upcoming Projects


Projects planned for Q3 2022

  • Water Pumps – New automation and smart pumps to improve water pressure consistency.  Due to delivery delays, this is now scheduled for late June.
  • Lockers & new carts for Housekeeping.  In Process.
  • Walkway Repair (East Side), scheduled for June.
  • Pet Area Shades – TBD, waiting on price from contractor.
  • 1st Floor Tile Install – In progress. Expected completion Aug 2022. This timing is dependent on condo availability.

HOA Manager: Kristian Osuna
Interim HOA Office Manager: Cristina Arvizu
HOA Assistant: TBD

Our last General Owners Meeting (GOM) was held on Saturday April 30, 2022 at the resort.

April 2022 General Owners Meeting (GOM)

April 30, 2022

 

Voting Results from the Meeting:

  • SC Positions
    • No one ran for the Chairman position.
    • Lori Smith was re-elected as East Building Rep
    • Bill Woodward and Bruce (Bruno) Barclay were re-elected to their General Rep Positions
    • Bill O’Brien was re-elected as West Building Alt
  • AC Positions
    • Dan Cooney was elected as AC President.
    • Jerry McKinney was elected as AC Treasurer

Other Voting Results: 

  • Non-Paying Guest Policy – Approved
    • Each condo will receive an allocated number of Non-Paying guests wristbands for each calendar year based on their indivisible portion.
    • Owners may purchase additional wristbands at a cost of $7.00 US per wristband.
    • Owners may designate a specific number of family members or friends as preferred Non Paying Guests that does not go against their annual NPG allocation.
  • Long Term Renter Policy – Approved
    • Monthly Impact fees: 1 BR = $50 USD; 2 BR = $75 USD; 3 BR = $10 USD; 4 BR = $150 USD
  • HOA Office Key Management Policy – Approved
    • HOA office will only provide key to access condo’s in an emergency situation. An emergency is an event impacting safety of owners.
    • Owners will need to provide a key or keypad code to 3rd parties for routine access.
  • Balcony Railings Proposal (Special Assessment) – Approved
    • Option B – Painted Aluminum Railings
    • Owners approved the use of the reserve account for no more than $115K to cover the cost of the common area railings.
    • A special assessment will be paid quarterly, starting in June 2022.

Please contact the HOA with any questions regarding the HOA meeting. Meeting minutes are posted in the owners section of the sonoransearesort.org website.

 

NEXT GOM MEETING: Nov 5, 2022

COVID 19 Update

Covid 19 Impact at the Sea

We have had 0 employees test positive for COVID this quarter. We are no longer checking employee temperatures or doing any active Covid testing.


The City Hall announced in May that facemask use is no longer obligatory in Puerto Penasco. The use of facemasks is now voluntary.

Kristian's Korner
This is a new section of the Newsletter where Kristian Osuna, our HOA Manager, will be providing info he wants to share with owners.
In an effort to improve on one of our key objectives (Professionally serviced) the HOA office is working on implementing online payment options via Credit Card or Debit Cards through Vivook. This should speed up payments and it will also help us drive more people to use Vivook.
We don’t have a ETA for when this will be set up we are hoping by July if everything works out well with Vivook and the Card processing company.
The balcony railings project is proceeding as planned. Everyone should have received their bill (via email) for the first assessment payment, which is due by June 30th. The 2nd payment will be due in September, 3rd payment in December, and final payment in March 2023.
Please contact the HOA office with any questions.
Owner Files

Documents Required


The HOA requires you to provide the following items which are kept on file in the HOA office:

Current Board / HOA Contacts & Terms
Name Role Term Email
Dan Cooney President-AC 05/22 - 05/24 DanielPCooney@gmail.com
Jerry McKinney Treasurer-AC 05/22 - 05/24 jerry.will.mckinney@gmail.com
Leslie Roman Secretary-AC 05/21 - 05/23 leslie@5romans.com
Lori Smith East Building Rep 05/22 - 05/23 sassyseahorse109@cox.net
Howard Tolshinsky East Building Alternate 11/21 - 11/22 htolchinsky@yahoo.com
Bill Woodward General Rep 05/22 - 05/23 woodwarw@comcast.net
Karen Matson General Rep 11/21 - 11/22 karenmatson@gmail.com
Bill O'Brien West Building Alt. 05/22 - 05/23 wvobrien@msn.com
Bruce Barclay General Rep. 05/22 - 05/23 RockyPointBruno@gmail.com
Sylvia Koppen General Rep. 11/21 - 11/22 sk@allmountainrv.com
Keith Allen West Building Rep. 11/21 - 11/22 encantamesalesdirector@gmail.com
Kristian Osuna HOA Manager Annual Renewal kristian@sonoransearesort.org
Cristina Arvizu Interim HOA Office Manager N/A hoamanager@sonoransearesort.org
TBD HOA Assistant N/A hoaoffice@sonoransearesort.org

Good bye to Fabian Urrea

It is with bittersweet sentiment that we would like to inform you that Saturday June 4th was Fabian’s last day at the Sonoran Sea.  Fabian has received and accepted a new position at another resort on Sandy Beach.  This is a great opportunity for Fabian.

 

We would like to thank Fabian for his years of service, for his professionalism and for his dedication to improve the Sonoran Sea operations.

 

In the meantime Cristina will be taking in the roll as interim office Manager to continue with the activities and projects we have scheduled thru the year.

 

Goodbyes are usually sad, but this time we say good by with a big great smile to Fabian!

Water Shortage

The City of Puerto Penasco is experiencing a water shortage, this is not unusual in the summer months, but this year it is more severe. The water we have available on Sandy Beach depends on the water we receive from SBR and what they receive from OOMAPAS (City Water). All of the resorts on the beach (including the Sonoran Sea) are dependent on this water source. At this time, the Sonoran Sea is one of the resorts with more water. According to the administrators at the other resorts (Sun, Bella Sirena, Pincesa, Las Palmas, Las Palomas) they are all struggling to get water. Some resorts are currently shutting water on the buildings for periods of time to prevent going below their minimums. We are trying to avoid this at the Sea by turning off water to the grass and plants, and shutting down water where there is less of a need. We are waiting and hoping that the city will re-activate another water well so they can start pumping more water. In the meantime, it is very important that all of us work together to reduce the water usage.

HOA Forms

Most of the HOA forms are now available to submit online via the SonoranSeaResort.org owners portal. We are working to get all forms available to submit online. Forms can be accessed via the SonoranSeaResort.org Owners portal. If you don’t have access you can request it by going to https://sonoransearesort.org/owners/login and clicking on the yellow “Request Access” button.

Palapa and Pool Chairs

It’s already been a busy season at the pool and the beach! We want everyone to be able to enjoy the resort. So please remember that the Palapa’s and the Pool Chairs cannot be reserved. Any towels or items left unattended for more than 30 minutes will be removed by security.

Our security, maintenance, cleaning, and administrative staff at the Sonoran Sea are critical to our safe, professionally serviced, well maintained, and financially solvent operations. Our people make our resort a wonderful place to be! We will highlight a couple of employees in each newsletter.

Ramon Alan
Sanchez Yescas (Security)

Ramon is originally from Puerto Penasco. Ramon likes to spend time with his friends go out to dance & have drinks, he considers his self very funny, and he likes to collect different kinds of beer.

Veronica Guadalupe Sanchez Garcia (Housekeeping)

Veronica is originally from Tijuana, Baja California. Veronica likes to play sports especially basketball, she likes to spend time with her friends & family, watch action movies and box.

Director of Security: Rey David Castro

Mar Incidents:

 

  • 03/05/22 16:00 PM The restaurant’s supplier hit the canopy of the security booth with his vehicle, damaging some pieces oftile, to which he was informed that he had to cover the payment of the damages caused, which amounted to 100 dlls.he covers the payment of the damages and the money is sent to the HOA
  • 03/05/22 16:00 PM SRO named Marisa Eckerson and company (405W) and SRO named Joe Ward (708E) are removed from the pool area for disrespecting each other. It all started because Mrs. Marisa complained that Mr. Joe’s daughters were swimming on top of her; besides that they were touching her legs and they were splashing her with water. Mr. Joe did not take it in a good way and began to insult Mrs. Marisa as well as wet the security guardwho was attracting attention at that time (Miguel M.)It had been decided to remove only Mr. Joe from the pool area, but since more of Mr. Joe began to insult Mrs. Marisa’s companion. For this reason, Mrs. Marisa and her companion were also removed from thepool area.
  • 03/05/22 19:25 PM The son of the owner of condominium 509W is called out for knocking on the door of condominium 401E.
  • 03/05/22 20:33 PM A call is received from Luis (receptionist) to report that there were complaints from the restaurant managers since the son of the owner of condominium 509W was quite drunk and he also requested the presence of security to control him… Raymundo, Humberto and Miguel appear at the scene to control . We spoke with parents through the cell phone who were told that this could not continue to happen since the same thing happened every time their son came to the resort and that if this time there was a need to use handcuffs and pepper spray was going to be used. It is worth always mentioning that . was insulting Miguel M. for previous problems
  • 03/05/22 23:00 PM Owners son was called out again for knocking on the door of condominium 801E
  • 03/10/22 19:30 PM Miguel M. notices noises coming from level 7 of the East building (709,710) and sends security personnel (Raymundo O) who realizes that both the doors of condominium 709 and 710 were damaged due to the blows he gave him the landlord of condominium 309E. At 9:00 p.m. A request is made for a municipal police unit to support the eviction of the renters of 309E as well as the payment of the damages caused, which amount to 300 dlls. 9:20 p.m. It was necessary to put the handcuffs on the renter who caused the damage since he wanted to leave the place and he was transferred to a security booth. 10:00 p.m. Police unit #002 arrives with agents named Ramon Valdez and Juan Martinez to support the eviction as well as the owner of condominium 309E. The person who causes the damage as well as Miguel M. (Security) were brought before the MP agent. For the demarcation of responsibilities and subsequent payment of damages
  • 03/13/22 11:54 AM A male person appears in a booth mentioning that he is coming to the TOPAS 200 building, mentioning that there is no building with that name here. Then he mentions that he is coming with José. He does not know what condominium he has, for this reason he is denied access, beginning to say that sucker for not letting him in, he is also made aware that for the safety of the owners no information is given about anyone to which he answers in an aggressive tone and he was pleased by mentioning the subject who did nothing because I was wearing my uniform (Martín P.), then he made a call with his cell phone telling me to answer the call and I told him that if someone wanted to talk to me, they would dial me on the phone booth, opting to leave later.
  • 03/15/22 12:03 AM The security agent Ramon Sanchez reports a young male with a Las Palomas bracelet in the east elevator area who is asked to leave the same resort that he said was offering him 20 dlls. To which he immediately tries to get him out of the resort to avoid problems, two females arrive at the place, one of the owner of 705E asking what happened to what the young man told him that he had given money to the agent and the supposed owner gives him his bracelet same black that when getting on the elevator he returns it to the owner, later the young man goes down the elevator taking his way to the beach. It is worth mentioning that by means of the telephone in the elevator, Mrs. owner that she already knew that you could not do that of handing over the bracelet just for leaving a security in a bad way, to which she replies that she is responsible for what happens.
  • 03/15/22 13:25 PM The following report is made for the security agent Esteban R. Who is called to his attention for sitting behind the pool bar busy on his phone since moments before he was given the order to be on the lookout for the areas since his partner Ramon S. was on the general route and there were still active guests and owners in the areas, it is mentioned that they were already aware of leaving the cell phone in the booth, ignoring it. He stated that he would go to the HOA office later to file his complaint.
  • 03/15/22 17:04 PM Attention is called to guests of condominium 708e for activating all the buttons inside elevator 01 and throwing a plastic bottle from level 4 to 1 of the same building, the made of minors was known that if they were surprised again, they would be evicted from the resort.
  • 03/17/22 18:50 PM Due to the report of the rentals of condominium 602 e, attention is called to the renters of condominium 702 e for being smoking in the balcony area.
  • 03/17/22 19.37 PM Two non-paying guests from condominium 806e were surprised urinating inside elevator 01 of the same building, for this reason it was proceeded to make them know that they would be evicted from the resort due to the commented lack, as well as the rest of the renters were evicted from the resort, completing the eviction at 20:50 since some of the guests were outside the resort.
  • 03/17/22 20:00 PM Loud noise is heard outside the elevators on level 7. Security supervisor Miguel m. Going to the site, observing broken extinguisher box glass as well as observing a young man who had a bleeding hand approaching him, being SRO of condominium 702E he refused to receive medical attention, he made a phone call to Rodrigo Ruiz, head of maintenance to see the cost of the glass, stated that it was 20 dlls, which were covered by the person responsible for the damages.
  • 03/17/22 04:50 AM An 18-year-old male, guest of Las Palmas, arrives at the gate, requesting help to be attended to him injured in the right hand, he was provided first aid
  • 03/17/22 19:50 PM Report via radio security elements of jet sky accident in beach area coming to provide supportby supervisor muguel moreno as well as paramedic karen from la palmas, the injured are guests of condominium 802 e. No transfer is required now there were only minor injuries.
  • 03/24/22 19:50 PM Owner of condominium 1004 e, arrives at the gate, to report that someone breached his condominium, stating that he left approx. At 12:00 noon and when he returned at 5:30 pm, he realized that a wall decoration that was more than 6 years old was dropped and broken on the floor, the strange thing is that the door sheet is new and was not forced and only he has key.

Apr Incidents:

  • 4/1/22 19:00 PM A phone call was received from Luis (receptionist) to inform that the owner of 403e was reporting a strong aroma of marijuana. We proceeded to send a security personnel (Martin P. And Jose C.) To investigate, resulting in the people who are renting condominium 502e. It proceeded with the confiscation of a small orange pipe with marijuana residue, they had told them as any other insider with their condominium they would proceed with the eviction.
  • 4/2/22 13:34 PM Unit 005 of the municipal police enters in charge of commander Jose Antonio Miranda, who requests support to upload the insured and be transferred to the command as well as support is given to the men to get their vehicle and some belongings that had already been down when the manager Miguel had talked to them from the beginning following up on the aforementioned Miguel m, communicated with the receptionist on duty who was in the morning (Alonso), who states that he received them around 7 am and that he wanted to give them the bracelets but they refused, stated that they had already paid enough money in the rent of the condominium and that they did not they would pay no dollar more, like this is reviewed in the vehicle access log of this computer appearing that they have registration at07:18 am and are as sro of the day ,again mentioned is a Chevrolet cruse, in gray color with road permit u668321 from the state of Arizona in gray color
  • 4/3/22 15:30 PM A call is received from the lobby from Susana, who states that a female person is found claiming a couple of chairs and an umbrella that she had been left near of the elevator of the west, she is told that they are in the front gate, also the owner of the items comes, being this NPG of 708 w
  • 4/8/22 19:50 PM A guest from condominium 608e arrived at the lobby area to make a complaint that a couple was found in the pool area having sex inside the pool. The report was passed to security that they were in the area and reported that they already had more than half an hour being looked after that couple but that was not what the guest was reporting. What is included i taken the man out two times to be accurate from the report and it was not what it seemed
  • 4/10/22 6:30 PM Guest of 708e requests help from the red cross (responding to the name of Mary Michel’s partner Mario meets the people in the minion condo the red cross arrives in the project to provide help to the person (Mary Michel’s) who will be transferred to the naval clinic at the request of family members, Mario reports. Supervisor Miguel Angel provided help.
  • 4/16/22 17:24 PM A crash was recorded at the exit of the resort of two vehicles, the first a cherry colored Ford Focus vehicle, driven by Yoselin Gutierrez, a chambermaid from Casa Go, and the second a beige Ford F-350 with Utah license plates f561hc, of the facts the municipal police unit #090 took over.
  • 4/16/22 reports security supervisor Miguel Moreno that a minor was surprised with an expired owner’s friend’s bracelet, for which he talks with the minor’s parents, realizing that the person in charge of condominium 702e is making use of the owner’s friend bracelets.
  • 4/16/22 16:35 PM A Nissan vehicle, guests of condominium 711w, was stopped at a security booth to verify that no outsiders entered the condominium, noticing two people who were not in the condominium, they were asked to dispose of the vehicle since they could not be in the condominium since they were not guests of the resort, access was only given to the renter of condominium 711w, so that he could remove the other people’s belongings.
  • 4/22/22 23:36 PM RZR enters the resort, with 4 people on board, two of them female, who were not wearing their bracelet, stating that they were guests of condominium 107e, and that the bracelets had been lost, proceeding to go to the lobby, one of them in a very haughty manner was arguing with Alfonso the receptionist, the young woman’s mother arrived at the lobby apologizing as her daughter suffers from anxiety attacks.
  • 4/24/22 8:45 AM Arrives at Eco fun’s personal booth in a gray colored pickup vehicle asking to access the resort to pick up their clients, access was denied since he had two pets in the vehicle, the reason was explained, and the driver became rude to the element of Security Martin P. leaving the resort.
  • 4/27/22 9:50 AM Arrives at the gray Nissan vehicle booth, cbd0505 plates, trying to enter through the access pen for owners, which would not open, behaving in a bad way, the driver asked the Raymundo security element with bad words to open the pen that he owned the condominium 204e, giving him access to it.
  • 4/28/22 17:55 PM A friend of the owner of condominium 411e is asked to leave the resort for starting a family fight outside the east elevators, charging him 100 dlls for damages caused to the lid of the garbage can.

May Incidents:

 

  • 5/5/22 14:04 PM The renters of the 410E arrived at the security booth, the same ones that when checking the ticket lists were not located there, they proceeded to call the lobby on several occasions, stating that they did not have any Authorization email for that condominium, later the guests contacted the owner of the condominium stating that he had sent the email repeatedly, 30 minutes later they notify the lobby that the confirmation of the condominium had just arrived.
  • 5/5/22 18:50 PM Guests of condominium 512E arrive at the security booth to report that within the resort facilities they had stolen the gasoline from the tank of their vehicle and that they had left it empty, the video surveillance cameras were checked, in the presence of the same reporters who concluded that it was not at the resort where they emptied their gas tank.
  • 5/8/22 A friend of the owner of condominium 102E arrives at the booth to claim a driver’s license in the name of Pullette Sagra, who had entered as a visitor and invited to a wedding and did not return her badges, for which she was given the collection of 20 dlls, for the badges, money that was delivered to Fabian in HOA office.
  • 5/9/22 7:44 AM A phone call is received in a security booth from the owner of the 703W condominium, reporting that her guests had complained that the night before there was a lot of noise in the 803w condominium, it is worth mentioning that during the night shift there was no report of noise in that condo.
  • 5/12/22 8:20 AM A telephone call was made to that elevator company, since elevator 2 of the East building did not close the doors, the company came to repair the fault.
  • 5/18/22 14:53 PM Friends of the owner of condominium 702este arrive to use the pools, the same as two days ago they had been using the pools with bracelets from the owner’s friend, they were informed that the format they brought had already expired, that they had to go to the office of HOA to fix the citation of the format, stating mr. with an Argentine accent that the format was for the whole year and that it did not have an expiration date, passing this to the HOA office to fix the citation.
  • 5/21/22 12:05 PM A friend of the owner of the 804west condominium reports that her partner named Jesus Rios had wanted to hit her, requesting support to evict her partner from the resort, the support of the tourist police was requested, for the eviction of the reported going to unit 009 removing the reported from the resort.
  • 5/23/22 16:00 PM First aid was given to the guest of condominium 711 west, by Rey David Angulo and Miguel Moreno, due to a stingray sting, requesting the support of a tourist assistant ambulance.
  • 5/24/22 19:50 PM The security element José Luis Castorena, reports that he had a blood spill in his left eye, going to the security booth where his blood pressure was checked, giving a result of 170/107/85, asking him to go to the social security to receive medical attention.
  • 5/28/22 0:55 AM The security element Carmen Islas, when she is on duty at the security booth, notices a male person, who fell into the spikes they have in planters of Sonoran Resort construction offices asking for support from the security elements Andres Ontiveros and Jose campoa, providing first aid, due to the depth of the injury, the support of a red cross unit was requested, unit 693 under the command of paramedic Jesus Gonzalez, carrying out the transfer of the injured person to a clinic in the city.
  • 5/29/22 15:26 PM The security element Mario reports people with blue bracelets in the pool area, when interviewing the reported supervisor Miguel Moreno, he comments that they are guests of the owner of the 503west condominium, telling them that the bracelets are expired and that they had to move to the Lobby in the company of the owner of the condominium to change the bracelets.
  • 5/30/22 2:40 AM A phone call is received at the security booth where the receptionist Luis who is a guest of the 602west condominium reports, asks for support to remove his partner from the condominium since he was very aggressive, he withdrew the reported to the lobby area to safeguard the integrity of the reporter, requesting the support of a municipal police unit, unit 091 attending officers Francisco Garcíaand Enrique Nieto, who removed the 32-year-old man named Adrian Avalos from the resort.
  • 5/30/22 10:30 AM Attention is drawn to the residents of La Palmas for making use of palapas from the east as well as a volleyball court, stating that they were in the federal zone and that they would not leavethe place, opting to request support from the tourist police arriving at the place. and removing people whohad rude attitude.

Sea Shepherd Continues the Fight to Keep the Vaquita Marina Alive

The large ships that you often see off the coast of Rocky Point are Sea Shepherd patrol ships.

 

On board two ships of the NGO Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, environmental defenders work 24 hours a day hand in hand with the Mexican authorities to save the almost extinct vaquita marina in the Upper Gulf of California, in the Mexican Sea of Cortez.

 

The most recent scientific survey—conducted in October and November 2021 by Sea Shepherd’s MV (motor vessel) Sharpie and the Museum’s MV Narval—only between seven and eight adult vaquitas and one to two pups were detected. “They are the ones that could be counted, but, of course, there may be other vaquitas because this sea is a big place. On a map it looks small, but from the sea, it is huge,” he said in an interview with Efe Pritam Singh, president of Sea Shepherd.

 

Despite the drastic reduction in specimens in recent years, hope is maintained that, thanks to the tireless work of Sea Shepherd and the collaboration of the Mexican authorities, a gradual growth of this endemic species is being achieved. “It is very possible that there are other vaquitas, which is good. We are very hopeful that the vaquita can recover. It has been an extraordinary year and we hope for real change”, added Singh.

 

Starting in January 2022, Sea Shepherd and the Secretary of the Mexican Navy began a new joint information and response protocol that resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of fishing boats in the Zero Tolerance Zone. They remove nets that the locate, but many still exist, according to a press conference from San Felipe, in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California.

 

In addition to searching for fishermen in the protected zone, they remove nets that are drifting, and that can catch vaquitas and also totoabas, a fish whose bladder is bought for exorbitant sums due to various beliefs from traditional Chinese medicine. Entanglement in fishing nets is the greatest documented threat to the survival of the species.

 

“The activities that (Semar) does is to maintain the rule of law in the area and we have been providing escort and security to Profepa (Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection) and Conapesca so that they can carry out their work, which is to inspect,” the third master of the Navy Infantry, Marine Garcia, told Efe in an interview. “There have been changes, from two years ago to now. Recently, there have not been as many confrontations,” he added.

-Source: Sonoran Sea Resort Newsletter May 2022

Mexico President Lopez Obrador Authorizes Completion of Rocky Point Home Port 2

Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo announced that the president of Mexico has authorized continuation of construction on the Home Port project in Rocky Point.

 

The Governor indicated that the amount of the investment has yet to be defined, but he commented that the project will move forward due to the positive impact that it will have on the region and the increase in tourism that will be achieved when it is completed.

 

The project has been tied up in legal battles which has paralyzed the project for many years, however, the Governor reported that the parties involved in the lawsuits have agreed to withdraw their claims, with certain conditions.

 

In his recent visit to Sonora, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador authorized the allocation of the necessary resources for the completion of the works of the Home Port for cruise ships in Puerto Peñasco, a project that has been abandoned for more than six years, stated Governor Alfonso Durazo Montaño./p>

 

The Governor specified that the investment required to recover the unfinished terminal for several years will be updated so that it can be completed and allow cruise ships that sail through the Sea of Cortez, with the home port in Puerto Peñasco. There is a legal process related to the Home Port which must be completed, he admitted, but those involved in that legal process have agreed to withdraw their claims under certain conditions.

 

He explained that, as part of the support that the state will have this year from the federal government, more than one billion pesos will be allocated for the completion of pending works such as the Home Port, rehabilitation of natural spaces, and infrastructure works in various municipalities.

 

According to files of AHORA NOTICIAS, the Home Port of Puerto Peñasco was 55% complete in the construction of the protection breakwater and 2% complete in the construction of the pier, with an investment applied of 491 million pesos, out of a total of 680 million that were initially budgeted.

 

The work, which began in December 2013 in the Sandy Beach area, consists of a breakwater, a platform for buildings with a cruise ship dock, an access avenue, and a pedestrian boardwalk with a beach reclaimed from the sea. It was scheduled to be completed in mid-2015, but obviously, that did not happen.

Source: Sonoran Sea Resort Newsletter May 2022