Sea Watch in its first five years has been able to help accomplish some great things and it’s been done on a budget of under $30,000 a year. Every dime donated goes directly into the projects we are involved in. There are no salaries paid to anyone! Everything is donated down to the printing costs, which are donated by Super Printers and Web hosting by Aracnet both located in Portland, OR. The graph below breaks out the disbursement of all moneys received.

Thanks to all of you, the first artificial reef program in the Sea of Cortez is a reality. Two large boats (150 and 200 feet) were sunk outside La Paz Mexico in November of 1999, to create the first artificial reefs in the Sea of Cortez. The Secretary of the Navy and Julia Carabias the Secretary of the Environment, Ecology and Fisheries dedicated these first two boats. They said it was the beginning of an era to rebuild the fisheries in the Sea of Cortez. This project was the brainchild of SeaWatch and we were primary contributors in the developmental stages of the project, putting in 3 years of work and approximately 20% of the monies needed for the sinking of the first two boats.

I’ve listed some of our other accomplishments below:

- Brought to the attention of Mexico and the world the destruction of the Giant Pacific Mantas of the Revillagigedo Islands. As a result, the Islands are now a reserve where no commercial fishing is allowed within 12 miles and there is a $10,000 fine for killing a giant Pacific Manta.

- Caught and filmed over 25 boats illegally fishing in the Revillagigedo reserve. Our special reports on Televisa (100,000,000 viewers worldwide) caused 12 of these boats to be arrested and the Navy now has put a frigate on patrol within the reserve to further reduce illegal fishing.

- Produced over 60 special reports that have been aired on Mexico’s most watched evening news. These 3-5 minutes reports are hard hitting and have made Mexicans aware of many destructive practices taking place in the Sea of Cortez and it’s surrounding waters.
Photographed the killing of Whale Sharks and spearheaded a petition drive to stop the killing of Whalesharks and Giant Pacific Mantas in the Sea of Cortez. Over 3000 petitions have been delivered to Mexican officials and there is now legislation being drawn up to protect these magnificent creatures in the future.

- Though a series of articles and television special reports we were able to give the Mexican officials a clear view of the problems in the Loreto area, which has now been turned into a marine park. We are currently producing a series of television reports showing the continuing destruction in the Marine Park.
Our original work created interest from the world press and brought in writers from around the world to chronicle the destruction of the Sea of Cortez. Their work has helped Mexico to focus on stopping the destruction.

- We are currently very active in trying to stop the proliferation of longliners on the Pacific Coast of Mexico and the United States.

Thanks again for your continued support!