La Corriente - Volume 2, Issue 6
(June 2026)
We are excited to share the next issue of La Corriente, created by the Mexico Marine Wildlife Rescue Center. Enjoy a mix of articles, local updates, and our Volunteer Spotlight!
A Win for Wildlife in Loreto
There was some encouraging news recently for marine wildlife and conservation in Baja California Sur.
In April, a federal decree quietly opened the door for larger international cruise ships to begin coming into Loreto Bay, raising immediate concerns among residents, scientists, conservation groups, fishermen, and tourism operators. Many worried about what increased ship traffic could mean for one of the most ecologically rich and protected marine areas in the Gulf of California.
Loreto Bay National Park is home to an incredible diversity of marine life, including blue whales, dolphins, sea lions, sea turtles, rays, seabirds, and countless fish species. It is also a place where local livelihoods are deeply connected to the ocean. Fishing families, whale watching guides, ecotourism operators, and residents all depend on healthy waters and thriving wildlife.
For many locals, the concern was not about tourism itself. Loreto has long welcomed visitors and benefits from tourism. Instead, people questioned whether larger cruise ships fit with Loreto’s identity as a community built around nature, fishing, wildlife viewing, and small scale tourism. Concerns grew around increased underwater noise, vessel traffic, pollution, and pressure on sensitive marine habitats, especially for blue whales that rely on sound to communicate, feed, and navigate.
What happened next was something pretty inspiring.
Within days, people across Loreto came together. Fishermen, scientists, tour guides, business owners, conservation organizations, local residents, and biologists stood side by side with a shared message: Loreto is a sanctuary, not a cruise terminal. More than 40 civil society and environmental groups formed a coalition calling for the decree to be reversed. Scientists and marine experts raised concerns about potential impacts to blue whale migration routes and sensitive marine ecosystems, while local fishing families and tourism operators spoke about protecting the waters that support both wildlife and community livelihoods.
Petitions gained momentum, public demonstrations were held, and local voices became impossible to ignore. The Governor of Baja California Sur formally requested that the federal government reconsider the decision, and public pressure continued to build.
And the good news? Community voices were heard.
In late May, the Mexican government reversed the decree, halting plans that would have opened Loreto to larger cruise ships. For many, it felt like an important reminder that conservation works best when science and community come together. In this case, fishermen and whale guides stood alongside scientists and biologists, all advocating for the same thing: protecting one of the most extraordinary marine ecosystems in the Gulf of California.
For those of us involved in marine wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, this story feels especially meaningful. Caring for wildlife is not only about helping animals when they are injured or stranded. It is also about preventing harm before it happens by safeguarding the habitats they depend on.
The success in Loreto demonstrates what is possible when science, local knowledge, and community action come together. Their efforts helped ensure that one of Mexico’s most remarkable marine environments remains a refuge for whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sea lions, and countless other species.
Sometimes, conservation wins. This feels like one of those moments.
Source: Mexico News Daily, “How Loreto stood up to the cruise industry and reversed a presidential decree” by Tracy L. Barnett, May 27, 2026. (Mexico News Daily)
Sourced and Summarized by Dawne Tomlinson
New AI-Powered Cameras Help Migratory Gray Whales in San Francisco
Last year, 21 gray whales surfaced dead in San Francisco Bay; the cause of death was mainly boat and freighter collisions. This was a wake-up call for a team of scientists who, working with the Coast Guard and the Marine Mammal Center, developed a new AI-powered camera that utilizes infrared imaging to spot large marine mammals in the bay.
If a pod is spotted, an alert is sent to WhaleSafe, a free public database that gives boats advanced notice when one of these cameras or a human spots a whale. This is essential because larger ships and freighters cannot change direction or speed easily, and they generally do not notice when they hit a whale. This means that preemptive notice is extremely important for freighters so they can avoid areas of the bay where the whales are likely to be.
These sensors provide accurate, long-term information to the network on whale traffic. While this species of gray whale is not currently endangered, its population has decreased significantly over the past 10 years, from 26,000 to 13,000. This camera will help avoid more unnecessary collisions with a whale species that makes one of the largest migrations of any animal on Earth. Due to climate change and habitat loss, these whales are now following different migratory patterns that put them in closer contact with humans. This can be extremely dangerous for them, so innovations like this are vital for our future coexistence with these animals. To learn more, you can read the article by KQED.org.
Sourced and Summarized by Maya Miller
A British Novelist’s Take on Pessimism
Ian McEwan, a British novelist and screenwriter, recently stated at the Hay Festival on Monday the 25th, during a record-breaking heat wave in the UK, that pessimism is a “bigger problem than climate change”.
This heat wave is bringing conversations about global warming across Western Europe, with temperatures reaching record highs for this early in the year; however, not many of those conversations are optimistic. Currently, the Earth is experiencing massive changes due to climate change. Massive dry spells, droughts, floods, abnormal rains, heat and cold waves, and natural disasters are just some of the effects of climate change that people are now experiencing firsthand. This can cause people to feel as though those changes have already happened, and that more negative impacts are bound to occur.
Optimism, McEwan suggests, is a “moral duty,” one that is actually an “exercise in rationality,” as there are many advances for the better in the world of environmentalism, citing how in 2020, electricity generated from renewable sources outpaced electricity generated from gas and coal in the UK.
This is an interesting take, but an important one. Optimism means that people care about our futures, and that we have hope. Optimism is not a naive coping mechanism; it allows societies to work for a better world by believing that it is possible. Pessimistic views cause people to give up and not care about the worsening conditions of our climate.
To learn more, you can see this article from The Guardian.
Sourced and Summarized by Maya Miller
Volunteer Spotlight: Heide Cronqwist
At the rescue center, our volunteers come from all walks of life, each bringing unique experiences, talents, and perspectives to the work. Some arrive with backgrounds in science, others in education, business, healthcare, or the trades. Together, those diverse skills help strengthen our mission of rescuing and protecting marine wildlife.
If you've spent any time around the Mexico Marine Wildlife Rescue Center, you've probably met Heide. Friendly, adventurous, and always willing to lend a hand, Heide is one of those people who seems to have lived several fascinating lives in one.
Born in Berlin and raised in San Francisco, Heide built successful careers in tax accounting and real estate before discovering a passion for flying. What started as a dream eventually led her to become a pilot, a member of The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots founded by Amelia Earhart, and a participant in air races and aviation gatherings across North America.
Along the way, she flew her own plane to Alaska, traveled around the world, pioneered life in Costa Rica long before it became a popular destination, and met her husband, Bob Mackey, in an airport bar in 1985. Bob was a retired Marine Corps colonel, retired attorney, and Marine pilot, making aviation something they both shared.
These days, Heide divides her time between Costa Rica and La Paz, where she volunteers with MMWRC. Whether she's helping care for rescued sea lions or sharing stories about flying over the Rockies, one thing becomes clear very quickly: Heide has never been afraid to say yes to an adventure.
Interview
Interviewer: All right, so first of all, I wanted to ask, you seem like a person with a really interesting life. I know you're originally from Germany, but you kind of grew up all over. Would you mind talking a little bit about that?
Heide: No, not at all. I grew up in Berlin, and then we moved to the U.S. many, many years ago, when I was seven years old, and we moved to Oregon. Then, my mother paid back the passage, and in three years, we moved to San Francisco, where I spent most of my young adult life.
Interviewer: Wow, did you study in San Francisco?
Heide: I did, both college and high school, and I lived in the Bay Area until I moved to Costa Rica in '89.
Interviewer: What did you do for a living?
Heide: My main job, well, I started out as a tax accountant in California, and that led me to going into real estate because all my clients were making so much money in real estate. I thought, why am I pushing a pencil? I could be making money like that. I'm just as smart as they are.
So then I went into real estate too, and most of my career was a combination of real estate and tax accounting.
Interviewer: What made you want to go to Costa Rica?
Heide: I went there on vacation, and I fell in love with the country. Back in those days, it was quite rustic, and there weren't many roads; telephones were hard to come by, so we really felt like we were pioneering the west coast of Costa Rica. It was beautiful, in the middle of the jungle.
Interviewer: Is that where you fell in love with nature?
Heide: I really did fall in love with nature there. I've always lived in big cities, like Berlin or San Francisco, so I really enjoyed how undiscovered Costa Rica felt. In those times, there weren't many roads, and it would take you a very long time to get from the capital to the coast. It was like a 12-hour drive, whereas it might be three hours now.
Interviewer: How long did you stay in Costa Rica?
Heide: Actually, I still live there part-time and about half the time in La Paz. I've been there about 37 years. I first went there and lived on the northwest coast when Costa Rica really hadn't been discovered yet. It was a very different place back then.
I
Interviewer: I heard you've worked with wildlife before coming to Baja California.
Heide: Actually, I worked with monkeys when I lived in Costa Rica. We had mostly monkeys, turtles, and birds. I worked with a couple of organizations, and a few people set up rescue centers.
Interviewer: What kinds of things did you do with those rescue centers?
Heide: We mostly took care of the monkeys. As the villages would get electrical lines, the wildlife wasn't used to that, so there were a lot of problems with electrocutions of the monkeys and other wildlife. If a mom or pop were maimed, hurt, or killed, we would also take the babies and just feed them and then release them as soon as we could.
Interviewer: Had you had any experience with veterinary care before?
Heide: No, nothing.
Interviewer: Wow! Did you have some guidance from people who had experience?
Heide: No, nothing. We really had to improvise, especially since medications would take days or hours to get to us. You had to find some knowledgeable people, mostly resident doctors who would be in the territory, so we could see how to treat animals.
Interviewer: The pilot thing fascinates me. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Heide: When we were living in San Francisco, my mother was single, and one of her friends was in San Diego. He sent her an airplane ticket to come visit, and that was my first ever airplane flight. I was probably about 10 or 11 years old, and I decided that I wanted to be a flight attendant.
That was my goal as a teenager, but they had tight restrictions back then, and I became too tall. I ended up being six feet tall, and that at the time was too tall. So I thought, well, maybe I'll be a pilot someday.
I was flying with some friends in my early thirties, and I just really fell in love with flying small planes. So I decided to buy an airplane. I took lessons and bought this old airplane, fixed it up, and started flying.
Interviewer: Where would you fly to?
Heide: Mostly it was recreational flying to other small airports around California. You just pop over to one place or another and have lunch. You'll take some friends and have lunch or dinner or breakfast, and then fly home.
Interviewer: What was the longest flight you ever made?
Heide: The longest one was when I flew from San Francisco to Anchorage, Alaska.
Interviewer: How long did that take?
Heide: Oh, it took days. You'd have to find out who has fuel, so you'd land for fuel and food, then spend the night somewhere. You just take your time and hop around.
Interviewer: What was the goal in Alaska?
Heide: I'd never been to Alaska, and I wanted to see Anchorage. I also met a lot of other lady pilots. We'd have conferences all over the country. I flew to Alaska and the U.S. a couple of times and participated in some air races. It was recreation.
Interviewer: Was this the Ninety-Nines?
Heide: Yes. They were started by Amelia Earhart, I think back in 1929. I met a lot of nice ladies up in Alaska. Some had flown in from Europe, so that was exciting to talk to them and hear about their own flying.
Interviewer: What's the most memorable flying experience you've had?
Heide: Probably flying around the world. I didn't fly myself on that trip, but I was on a 78-passenger airliner that had been converted to private charter, and we flew around the world in about 24 days. That was probably the highlight of my flying.
Interviewer: You seem to be going all over the place. Tell me a little bit about your travels.
Heide: I've always enjoyed traveling, but now in my later years, I like to be a little more comfortable. I've been cruising lately and doing long cruises, sometimes two or three months at a time. But I enjoyed my flying the most. The freedom of being able to go places and explore was really one of the high points of my life.
Interviewer: What's the most adventurous thing you've ever done while traveling?
Heide: Well, exciting and memorable can be different things. When I was in Alaska, I did go up in a balloon, which was fabulous. But honestly, flying your own airplane into situations that you wish you weren't in is probably the most adventurous thing. Flying your own aircraft teaches you to make decisions quickly and stay calm.
Interviewer: What's the most dangerous thing that happened to you while flying?
Heide: Coming back from Alaska, I was going over the Rockies, and all of a sudden the weather started deteriorating. I'm flying over mountain peaks, and the fog is rolling in, and you really can't fly if you can't see.
When I landed, I asked my girlfriends who were flying with me, and I said, "I think I peed in my pants." I was rubbing my hands on my jeans so much that my jeans were wringing wet when I got out of the plane. I was sweating bullets because I'm on the Rockies and the weather is deteriorating, and that's not where you want to be.
Interviewer: What made you come to La Paz?
Heide: Some friends that I had made over the years. I was a pilot, so when we lived in San Francisco, I would fly down there often. We made friends down here in La Paz and San Felipe. I decided that I liked warmer climates, so I moved to the sunshine. I made friends down here, so I decided it was a good place to live after my husband passed away.
Interviewer: How did you meet your husband?
Heide: We actually met in an airport bar in 1985.
Interviewer: That's a pretty fitting place for two aviation people to meet.
Heide: It really was. Bob was a colonel in the Marine Corps, an attorney, and a pilot in the Marines. Aviation was something we both shared from the very beginning.
Interviewer: Did you fly together very much?
Heide: We did. Flying was a big part of our lives. We both loved aviation, travel, and exploring new places. It gave us a lot in common and a lot of adventures together over the years.
Interviewer: It sounds like aviation shaped a lot of your life.
Heide: Absolutely. Flying opened doors to friendships, travel, experiences, and eventually even meeting Bob. I can't imagine what my life would have looked like without it.
Interviewer: How long have you been volunteering with the rescue center?
Heide: I think only about a year or so. I went to the bookstore looking for something to do in the community, and they led me to the rescue center.
Interviewer: What do you do at MMWRC?
Heide: Whatever they need. There are often animals in bad shape, and it's really always a surprise.
Interviewer: What do you think you bring to the rescue center?
Heide: Well, heck, not a whole lot. Just being a body there with two extra hands.
Interviewer: And not afraid to jump in?
Heide: Yes. Right. I just find out what do you need me to do? And I'll do it.
Interviewer: Do you have a favorite patient?
Heide: My favorite might be the sea lions. They're cute, they talk more, move more, they have their own personalities, which is always really fun.
Interviewer: What are some life lessons you've learned over the years?
Heide: I think just patience and the appreciation of wildlife. It's something I've really come to appreciate from being in Costa Rica and here.
Interviewer: Why do you think wildlife education is so important?
Heide: I'm a strong advocate of educating the public and helping people develop an understanding and care for the natural world. Knowing what to do and what not to do is really important. Hunting wildlife was something that I saw in the jungle a lot, unfortunately.
Interviewer: With so much information available today, do you think people should be more intentional about learning about wildlife?
Heide: So much depends on their lifestyles and economic abilities. Some people have other things to worry about and are focused on their own survival. I understand why they might not go out and seek more information. That's why education and awareness programs are so important.
Interviewer: Do you think that's part of the reason environmental issues don't always receive more attention?
Heide: Absolutely. There's just not a general awareness.
Interviewer: Is there anything you'd like to say to people reading this?
Heide: I would like to see more people involved in saving wild animals and in ecology. There are so many species that are now fading away.
Interviewer: Is there anything else that fits your philosophy of adventure?
Heide: Well, my one goal, which I doubt I'll ever achieve, is to go up in space. I think I'm too old for that.
Interviewer: Never too old.
Heide: Well, if I was asked, I'd hop to it in a second.
Talking with Heide, it's easy to see that adventure isn't really about airplanes, world travel, or even flying to Alaska in a small aircraft. It's about staying curious, trying new things, and being willing to jump in when something needs doing. That's exactly what brought her to wildlife rescue. After decades of flying, traveling, and exploring, she still shows up with the same attitude: "What do you need me to do?"
From helping injured monkeys in Costa Rica to caring for sea lions in Baja, Heide has spent much of her life answering that question. And while most people might be content with the adventures they've already had, Heide still has one item left on her bucket list.
Space. "If I was asked, I'd hop to it in a second," she laughs. Knowing Heide, we wouldn't bet against it.
Interview by Maya Miller
The Rich Biodiversity We Protect
The Gulf of California is a global conservation priority, home to astonishing marine life, including over 900 fish species, 37 marine mammal species, and five of the world's seven sea turtle species.
Our work not only saves individual animals but also advances scientific understanding of marine health, migration, and human impacts. Collected data informs conservation strategies, policy decisions, and community education, strengthening our commitment to protecting these magnificent creatures.
Pinnipeds
Four pinniped species are present in Mexico. Both sea lions and seals often require rescue from fishing gear entanglements and human-related injuries. They are also vulnerable to the effects of pollution and toxic algal blooms.
Sea Turtles
Five endangered species nest and feed here, making our rescue and rehabilitation efforts critical for their recovery.
Dolphins
Dolphins face threats from nets, pollution, harmful algal blooms, and marine debris, necessitating expert intervention.
Whale Sharks
These gentle giants migrate through our waters. We respond to occasional incidents of strandings and vessel collisions.
Whales
Species such as humpback and fin whales are vulnerable to fishing gear entanglement, requiring specialized disentanglement.
Seabirds
Seabirds, like pelicans, are especially vulnerable to entanglement and injuries, and our team responds when reported.