Tres Emes is a special spot for Ensenada locals and visitors alike. Photo: Nacho Felix//Save the Waves
Surfers in Ensenada, Mexico were caught off guard when the presidential administration unveiled plans to expand one of the city’s ports into surf zones. The proposed new breakwaters would encompass several surf spots, including the popular break Tres Emes.
During a conference held by President Claudia Sheinbaum on December 5, the port director of Mexico’s Navy discussed the expansion of six of the country’s ports – among those a $5.7 billion peso (USD $276 million) plan to increase the size of both ports in Ensenada. The plan would turn Ensenada’s smaller fishing port, El Sauzal, into a shipping port capable of receiving container ships with a roughly mile-long breakwater parallel to the coast. Tres Emes and several other waves in the area would be destroyed.
According to Gino Passalacqua, an Ensenada surfer with a PhD in oceanography and advisor for Save the Waves, locals have rejected several attempts to expand El Sauzal’s port dating back to 2009. However, the plans released during the recent presidential conference came out of the blue; there was no prior indication of the project which, according to the Navy port director, is scheduled to begin in 2025 and finish by 2028.
Passalacqua was part of a local delegation that met with government representatives to stress the dangers of the port expansion.
“When we started explaining the consequences of what it means to have a port this big, (the government representatives) were like deer in headlights,” said Passalacqua. “One of the main issues that I’ve seen for coastal structures like this in Mexico is that they do impact assessment for the operation of new facilities, but there’s no impact assessment for the construction process, which sometimes is the most destructive part.”
“That plan would destroy Tres Emes, Stacks, and Beans, and it would definitely affect San Miguel (due to changes in) refraction, currents, and sediment transfer,” added Passalacqua.
Fernando Marván, an Ensenada surfer and physical oceanographer who also attended the meeting, believes the plans presented at the presidential conference were drawn haphazardly. Meanwhile, residents remain in the dark, even as construction is supposedly set to begin this year.
“We haven’t heard anything,” said Marván. “We haven’t seen any surveying boats. We are keeping our eyes open for when the environmental impact assessment comes back. We need to ask for a public hearing to manifest our concerns and the flaws in the studies that they’ve done.”
Marván played a key role in stopping previous attempts to expand El Sauzal’s port, rallying local support and gathering signatures. It also helped that a new mayor was elected who ran on a platform of opposing the port expansion. But Marván isn’t confident that they can repeat that playbook against the power of the federal administration, which has a track record of pushing through infrastructure projects despite environmental opposition, as seen with the Tren Maya in the Yucatán peninsula.
“I think the chances are very low that we will stop this port project,” added Marván. “But we are hoping we can at least add our input and ask that, for example, Tres Emes not be touched.”
The port threat to Ensenada’s waves comes less than a year after the surfing community publicly opposed the construction of a fish hatchery on the bluff of Tres Emes. Passalacqua reports that construction on the hatchery has halted for the time being after an investor supposedly pulled out of the project.
The port expansion is the latest frustration of Ensenada’s surf community. To them, the city’s administration seems contradictory – promoting tourism while pursuing damaging economic development projects.
“There is an economic interest in Ensenada; they want a port,” said Passalacqua. “But there is issue after issue. The government has this economic growth point of view and the vision doesn’t align with their other vision to have an international tourist area, which isn’t possible without taking coastal conservation into account.”
