Giving Back with Gallo: A Story of Hope for Xcalak Beach
On Bajío’s recent Odyssey expedition to Xcalak, Mexico, we learned about an incredibly disturbing trash problem. Due to ocean currents and illegal dumping, vast amounts of plastics and ocean trash from neighboring countries and the cruise industry are being deposited on the shores of the tiny town of Xcalak—a mecca for flats fishing where you can catch permit, tarpon, bonefish, triggers, snook and cuda all on the same day.
We love Xcalak and its people and decided to do something about this growing trash problem. So we teamed up with local Liz Castro, daughter of Xcalak’s first fly fishing guide, and hired her to help us create a trash cleanup program. Liz manages 10-15 local people to clean up the town’s beaches and she hires trucks to haul away and dispose of the waste at recycling centers. This program is ongoing while we research and investigate the perpetrators causing the problem and work to stop it at its source. Learn more about Xcalak and its growing trash problem here.
How You Can Help
When you purchase an Xcalak Rooster tee or hat, $10 from the sale of each item will go to the Xcalak beach cleanup program. This equates to paying one worker for one full day of cleanup per purchase. Look guapo in your gallo gear while giving back to Xcalak. Bajío, the people of Xcalak, and the marine animals of Mexico thank you for your support and restoration of this extremely special place.
What’s with the Rooster?
What’s the story behind the colorful rooster on our Project Xcalak gear? The rooster is the unofficial symbol of the town featured on a mural in Xcalak.
The mural was painted by travelling artists from England for a charismatic local man nicknamed Gallo (Spanish for rooster) because of his red hair—a rare occurrence in Mexican manes.
The Bajío crew met Gallo on one of our visits to Xcalak. An entertaining storyteller, Gallo told us that his grandfather was a pirate (also blessed with red hair) and his family was one of the first to settle in Xcalak as coconut farmers. They were also one of the few to survive the great hurricane due to their ability to climb to the top of their stone chimney—the only one in town.
Gallo is deeply bothered by the trash problem as well and allowed us to use his rooster painting on our fundraising gear as an effort to help clean up the town’s beaches.
But There’s More
The Xcalak Rooster campaign is just a start. We’ll also raise awareness this through our documentary films and our distribution of the films on social media platforms. We’ll tell the stories through our magazine, our catalog and other marketing channels.
To make a difference it takes people. We believe that the youth of the countries we visit, along with the youth of the U.S. can provide the people power needed. They are activists. They believe in the power of the collective. And they care about fixing the environmental mess left by previous generations. Join us in our quest to restore our oceans: buy a rooster tee or hat and follow our stories on this site and social media.
]]>There have been expeditions to the mysterious deep—bottomless oceanic trenches with otherworldly luminescent creatures. Some believe the oceanic depths are the only parts of our watery world left to explore.
]]>There have been expeditions to the mysterious deep—bottomless oceanic trenches with otherworldly luminescent creatures. Some believe the oceanic depths are the only parts of our watery world left to explore.
We believe otherwise. Much of what remains to be discovered is not deeply out of reach, but in plain sight on the flats.
Our expedition seeks to find and catalog the world’s saltwater flats; study them; identify problems; and develop plans to address the environmental issues they face.
Our goal is to make a difference and leave things better than we found them.
The flats face many challenges. They are rich in resources that companies exploit for profit, many times without regard for the future health of the environment. They are recipients of our trash, as ocean currents deposit debris from cruise ships, garbage barges, and land-based dumps to their shores. The flats are on the front lines of climate change, as they're at sea level and witness the effects of rising tides before the rest of us.
]]>Sharks are important apex predators in marine ecosystems. Yet they are facing terrible threats such as overharvesting and related finning.
Read More]]>Illegal sand mining (for aragonite) is taking place in many countries around the world. These practices cause loss of natural beaches and ecosystems, and changes in water flows.
]]>The removal of vegetation on the landscape has dramatic impacts on the flats ecosystem, including increased sedimentation and nutrient enrichment.
]]>Mangroves are being destroyed at an alarming rate, jeopardizing essential habitat for marine life and increasing the vulnerability of coastal communities to the effects of rising sea levels.
]]>Dredging is often needed for navigation and cosmetic altering of coastlines. Unfortunately, what is removed cannot easily be replaced. Once gone, the ecosystem is permanently altered.
]]>The beauty and bounty provided by flats also promotes their uncontrolled development.
]]>As humans flock to the coastlines and global populations increase, demands for fish protein escalate. Without adequate controls in place, species on the flats are especially vulnerable.
]]>Not to be confused with Dos Equis (the fine Mexican lager), the Seis Equis (6X) challenges anglers to land six flats species on flies in a single day: tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracuda, jack crevalle and snook.
]]>Not to be confused with Dos Equis (the fine Mexican lager), the Seis Equis (6X) challenges anglers to land six flats species on flies in a single day: tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracuda, jack crevalle and snook. For so many anglers, trips are planned around getting one species—it’s a permit trip, a tarpon trip or a bonefish trip. They’re so fixated on their goal that they pass up on tons of great fishing along the way. Which is crazy.
All you have to do is rig up a few different rods and when a jack, a ‘cuda or a snook swims by—cast! The guides in Xcalak were so tuned-in to targeting permit that they automatically headed for their spot in the morning. When they understood that we were after more than permit, their eyes widened and they took us to perfect spots for each of the species. They were able to share all of their fishing knowledge, not just their permit expertise.
The challenge added a lot of excitement to our days on the flats—we even had a 6X fishing tournament. The winner got 4X—no small feat—and had makeable casts at 6X.
Hooking six different trophy fish in one day may seem impossible. But the odds of the elusive Seis Equis tilt in your favor in Xcalak.
]]>Alas, a large problem also lies beneath the surface. The second longest reef in the world, the Mesoamerican Reef runs along the Atlantic coast of Mexico and Belize.
]]>Alas, a large problem also lies beneath the surface. The second longest reef in the world, the Mesoamerican Reef runs along the Atlantic coast of Mexico and Belize. The reef is vital to the ocean ecosystem, the protective nursery where the ocean’s young are born and raised. It represents the future.
But ocean acidification is causing coral reefs to bleach and die. Once coral dies, the road back is very long. Most corals are slow-growing; reefs can take decades to recover.
Corals are comprised of two parts: the hard substrate and the organisms that cover it. Bleaching occurs when the organisms leave and reveal the white substrate. It’s like bees leaving a hive in mass. There are several likely causes—changes in climate, carbon levels rising, water pollution, etc. Sometimes the organisms come back, sometimes they don’t. If they stay gone long, the reef they left will die and cannot recover. Coral replanting is meant to replace the part of the reef that has died.
Scientists are experimenting with new techniques to grow coral and pinpoint species with the best survival rates, bringing new hope to the fight to save our coral reefs. And they are already at work in Xcalak.
Oceanus AC is a Mexican non-profit organization committed to the conservation of coral reefs. Founded in 2006 by the Masters of Sciences Miguel García and Gabriela Nava, Oceanus’ mission is to develop and apply best practices to the conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal resources. Their goal is to restore and grow coral colonies, increasing the resilience of coral reefs and generating benefits for local communities.
On our expedition, Gaby took us out to a site and showed us the stages of growth–from newly planted coral to 5 years old. It was amazing to see how fast their corals are growing and what a huge difference it is making. To date, they have planted 60,000 corals, which has impacted over 300,000 square meters of reef, which is 3/10ths of a square kilometer or 1/10th of a square mile. That may not seem like a lot, but if Gaby, her husband and 5-year-old son can do that much, think what could be done at scale.
We asked Gaby how we could help and she agreed her team needs more people to plant. How much does it cost to plant one coral? About $20. So, if we use the same formula we used for ocean trash, someone can buy one hat or shirt and plant one coral that will grow to 5 square meters? YES!
Instead of repeating our t-shirt/hat program, we came up with an idea called “Temples of Change.” The idea was to have an artist paint the inside of our frames and then donate a portion of the sale to the cause depicted. We asked artist Piper Nunn, one of our Bajío Team members, if she’d be interested and she jumped at the chance. She painted a coral reef design for one of our women’s frames and a fish design on one of our men’s frames. They’ll go on sale this fall, just in time for the holidays.
To learn more and help Oceanus AC with their project to protect Xcalak, visit https://oceanus.org.mx .
Stay tuned for updates on Xcalak and be sure to come back to read about our next expedition to Guanaja, Honduras.
]]>When you arrive in Xcalak, the first thing you notice is the water. It’s breathtaking. And with the reef just a couple hundred yards from the shore, the variety of colors is spectacular.
]]>TALKING TRASH
When you arrive in Xcalak, the first thing you notice is the water. It’s breathtaking. And with the reef just a couple hundred yards from the shore, the variety of colors is spectacular.
And now for the spoiler. The second thing you notice? Trash. It’s everywhere. Beaches are lined with it—garbage has infiltrated everything. The mangroves that hug the coast are huge trash traps of bottles, netting, and containers of all sorts. Where does it all come from? How did it get here? The people of Xcalak aren’t messy or dirty people. The streets of the town are immaculate, and their homes are well kept.
One day, as we took a walk along the beach near the lodge, we began to pick up a few pieces of trash. We quickly realized, however, that it would be an almost impossible task to make even the smallest dent. First, there was just so much of it. Every ten feet would probably require multiple trash bags to hold it all. Second, it was not all just sitting on the surface. Much of it was half buried in sand, pushed back into the mangrove to where it would require getting down on all fours and doing a belly crawl to extricate. And third, a lot of it was big. There were parts of boats, appliances, and wreckage that would be difficult to remove.
Toby (an Xcalak native, restaurant owner, Xflats lodge manager, and unofficial mayor of the town) tells us there has always been trash. However, the nature of the trash has changed quite a bit in recent years. Years ago, the trash was decent: glass fishing buoys, boxes of toys, food, coffee. One time, a lumber ship must have met its fate offshore, because tons of wood washed up: 2x4s, 4x4s, plywood—everything you need to build a house. Toby says that many of the houses in town were built from wood from that ship. But in recent years, the nature of the trash has changed. Now it’s just garbage.
The locals have theories about where the trash comes from. Some believe it’s from cruise ships that dump their trash so that they don’t have to pay to have it properly disposed of. It sounds plausible given the environmental atrocities we’ve seen from the cruise industry.
Another theory is that South American countries are dumping their garbage offshore. Their landfills are getting full or too expensive to maintain, and so they load barges and dump them at sea. It may sound implausible, but it is exactly what New York and New Jersey were doing in the 1980s. It was only when medical waste like hypodermic needles started washing ashore that the practice stopped.
So why has this little town at the southern tip of the Yucatan become the recipient of so much trash? It’s likely due to ocean currents. If you look on a map of ocean currents, you see that there are prevailing currents that move south to north, from South America, and then make a right turn at Cuba. The place where the current turns is Xcalak. It’s likely that as it turns, it offloads much of the trash that it’s carrying.
We believe that ocean trash is Xcalak’s biggest environmental challenge. It’s unsightly and unhealthy. Xcalak relies on fishing, diving and similar tourism for the bulk of its revenue. Trash-littered beaches also deter tourists and hurt the economy.
We want to help. We weren’t sure exactly what we could do, but we had a few ideas. One was to first get all of the existing trash cleaned up. To do so, we’d need to organize a massive clean-up effort. The other is to stop the trash from coming. In order to do that, we’d need to do some investigation. Is it coming from cruise ships? If so, how can we get proof. If we get proof, then who do we take it to? Do we confront the cruise ship companies? Do we appeal to the governments of the ports they’re using? If not the cruise ships, maybe it’s governments dumping garbage. Venezuela would be a good place to start. It’s due south and at the beginning of the current heading north. How can we know for sure? Once we do, how can we use this information to get the dumping stopped?
This problem may seem unsolvable. How can a small sunglasses company find the time and resources to devote to helping Xcalak combat trash? The simple answer is that we can’t—at least not by ourselves. It will take a lot of people to solve this and other problems. What we can do, however, is identify the problems, tell the stories, and mobilize people who will get involved and see it through.
After our expedition, we went to work to help Xcalak get a handle on the trash problem. We took out our calculators and Google Earth maps and ran the numbers. We found that there are about 12,000 meters of beach in Xcalak. Based on our knowledge of the beaches there and some discussions with the locals, we concluded that one person could clean about 20 meters of beach in one day. If 10 people were employed, then they could clean about 4,000 meters per month. That means that it would take 3-4 months to clean all of the beach in Xcalak. Labor is fairly inexpensive there, about $10 per day. To employ 10 people for four months at $10 per day would cost about $12,000 in labor. There would also be a cost for hauling the trash off to a recycling center. We estimated this at about $3,000. So, our total cost would be $15,000.
Next, we had to figure out how to fund it. One way to fund the clean would be for Bajío to write a check. And while that approach would be efficient, it wouldn’t raise awareness for the cause or pull others in to help. So, we came up with another idea. We would create a t-shirt and a hat, adorned with the Xcalak rooster and sell them to raise money for the cause. That way, we’d get the message out about the problem of ocean trash and give people a chance to get involved in a simple way. If we could sell a hat or t-shirt for $30, cover our costs of about $20, then we’d have about $10 to pay the workers. That would create a self-funding program that could go on indefinitely. In order to raise $15,000, we’d have to sell 1,500 hats and shirts. For a small company like ours, that’s a lot of hats and shirts, but in the end, it’s doable.
The Xcalak rooster program launched in September of 2021.Check back to see our progress, and by all means, go buy a rooster tee or hat today to support the cause!
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Anglers aren’t the only ones after fish in this rich habitat. The flats are vast, and it’s easy for poachers to slip through undetected. Periodically, fishermen from other towns come to Xcalak and set up illegal nets.
]]>Anglers aren’t the only ones after fish in this rich habitat. The flats are vast, and it’s easy for poachers to slip through undetected. Periodically, fishermen from other towns come to Xcalak and set up illegal nets. Jesse Colton, owner of Xflats lodge, recently heard from a couple guides that confronted poachers, taking down their nets and running them off—but not before they had taken quite a few permit and bones.
Protecting the flats requires a community effort, but it wasn’t always a priority for the locals. Through education, however, locals learned that the fish on the flats are worth far more alive than dead, and that fly fishing, not net fishing, is the path to sustainable prosperity.
Guides and their families have an ownership stake in the health of their local fishery. Jesse doesn’t own the boats or pay the salaries of the guides. Instead, guides own their own pangas and are hired by the lodge’s guests. The flats depend on these locals for protection, just as these locals depend on the flats for their livelihoods.
To begin to better understand the impacts of Illegal and unstainable fishing, we have teamed up with the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and University of Alabama professor, Michael Steinberg. Steinberg has been doing GIS satellite mapping for several years and then executing “ground truthing” expeditions to further clarify what satellites are seeing. These efforts provide an important baseline set of data that will serve as a benchmark for measuring progress or degradation. Bajío is funding a portion of the study for the Yucatan. The plan is to fund similar studies for all of the flats we visit with what we are calling “Project Treasure Mapping.”
]]>We’ve given a taste of the fish and folk, now we’ll take a look at some of the ecological problems facing the flats of Xcalak.
]]>We’ve given a taste of the fish and folk, now we’ll take a look at some of the ecological problems facing the flats of Xcalak.
As we headed out to fish each morning, we motored our way alongside the reef to a channel that led into the bay. The channel was obviously manmade: straight, of uniform width, not winding or natural. At the end of the channel was a barge crewed by uniformed workers. They were there every day; but we never saw them doing much work.
We were told that they had been dredging the channel for years. The goal was to dig deep enough to allow a cruise ship through; however, after digging four feet or so, they hit impenetrable rock. So there they were, with a channel deep enough for a panga (a small, open outboard fishing boat), but not much else. Their ultimate goal is to dig a channel all the way across the bay.
Elsewhere in the bay, about six miles north of the channel, is another eyesore: a massive concrete dock large enough for a cruise ship. There is no road to it, and it’s never been used. But there it is, sticking out into the bay, perched on the flats. We’re told that this structure, like the channel, is another piece of a grand plan to build a cruise ship route from Xcalak to Chetemal.
If the cruise ship channel is eventually built, it will destroy the fragile flats fishery. The damage done by the construction process alone would alter fish migrations and destroy habitat to the point of collapse.
Some locals insisted the channel to Chetemal would never happen, that it’s an impossible feat of engineering. That may be true. It may just be a politically-motivated jobs program, or symbolic project dedicated to progress or economic development. However, the Mexican government may continue to flow money into a project that will continue to damage the fishery. They’ve built a dock. They’ve dredged a channel. What’s next? We’re keeping an eye on it, and we’ll keep you posted.
]]>Now let’s get into the weeds. Sargassum is a brown seaweed with berrylike air bladders, typically forming large floating masses. Xcalak has a major sargassum problem. It piles up along the shores making it difficult to navigate and creating an unsightly mess. And it smells—awful.
]]>Now let’s get into the weeds. Sargassum is a brown seaweed with berrylike air bladders, typically forming large floating masses. Xcalak has a major sargassum problem. It piles up along the shores making it difficult to navigate and creating an unsightly mess. And it smells—awful.
According to the locals, the sargassum phenomenon is new. Grass has always washed up at certain times of the year, but in the past it was manageable. Now it’s not. What’s caused the change?
Local environmental groups believe the problem is man-made, caused by people thousands of miles away. As Brazil has cut down more of its rainforest to turn the land into pasture and crops for its cattle industry, it has increasingly turned to fertilizer to increase yields. Though the natural canopy of rainforest has been plowed, the rains persist, washing fertilizer downstream into the sea. Fertilizers in the Amazon Basin now feed huge blooms of sargassum, which ride ocean currents north to the shores of tiny Xcalak.
It’s unclear how to resolve an issue stemming from so far away, and demonstrates the fragility of these interconnected ecosystems.
]]>Tommy is an Xcalak local. He looks 15, but Tommy is our guide Alejandro’s 22-year-old son. Because Alejandro also looks younger than his age, we thought Tommy was his younger brother.
]]>Then there are the locals. A critical part of our expedition is building bonds with the locals (often indigenous to the area), learning their history, respecting their views and beliefs, helping educate them about the environment and sustainable business practices, advocating for them and teaching them to advocate for themselves.
Tommy is an Xcalak local. He looks 15, but Tommy is our guide Alejandro’s 22-year-old son. Because Alejandro also looks younger than his age, we thought Tommy was his younger brother.
Tommy has a wide smile and wonderful attitude; Tommy is also deaf and doesn’t speak. He’s tried hearing aids, and they worked; but he didn’t like how his voice sounded, was embarrassed by it, and so refuses to use them. He rides in Alejandro’s boat each day as his assistant guide. He’s proficient with pantomime and hand signals but, overall, he’s very quiet.
Even though Tommy sits in silence all day, he’s tuned in to every little detail. We didn’t realize just how deep still waters ran until we read some of the fishing reports he posts on Facebook. The posts are long, full of details and nuances we didn’t notice—and we were sitting right beside him most days. The posts were enlightening to read, and demonstrate Tommy’s insights and expertise about fishing the flats of Xcalak.
Our attention often goes to the most outspoken, the attention-seekers. Tommy may have a handicap, but—for those willing to listen—it can’t possibly shade his brilliance.
]]>Xcalak (pronounced ish-ka-lak) lies at the southern end of the Yucatan Peninsula near the Belize border—a dusty five-hour drive and a world away from Cancún.
]]>Xcalak (pronounced ish-ka-lak) lies at the southern end of the Yucatan Peninsula near the Belize border—a dusty five-hour drive and a world away from Cancún.
Xcalak is one of the most prolific and diverse flats fisheries we’ve ever seen, with healthy populations of permit, tarpon, bones, ‘cudas, triggers, jacks and snook. It’s also home to some of the most peaceful and beautiful people we’ve ever met.
We fished and explored Xcalak for two weeks in November, 2020 on the Odyssey’s first official expedition. The first week, we were pounded by Hurricane Theta. The second week, we did the pounding. So. Many. Fish.
Xcalak has a few ecological problems that we can help the locals solve so that the fish and the people stay happy for years to come. But we’ll start with the fishing.
Here’s a window into the Odyssey’s first expedition:
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