The contrast between Punta Nopolo Sur and Punta Nopolo Norte is striking. In the south, there is a tiny village, where entire families (e.g., mom, dad, and four-year-old daughter) go out in the panga to fish, where the same families have been fishing for generations. Life is hard and at a simple, subsistence level.

Nopolo Norte boasts a posh resort; near the Loreto airport, a development has filled in a wetland estuary, covering it with an 18-hole golf course. Condominiums and hotels are tastefully landscaped with palms and bougainvillea, and new construction runs rampant.

Recognizing the Sea of Cortez as a finite, irreplaceable resource, Mexico is making efforts to control its use, though heavy fishing, especially with the use of nets, continues to take a serious toll.

Tourism is touted as an alternative industry, but it presents its own contradictions… economic growth and destruction of natural environments; lifestyle changes and options that may be beyond the means of most local residents; unanticipated changes, some welcome, others not. When the fertilizer used to keep the golf course green, for example, runs off into the sea…where will the fish that have been saved from the nets go?