Cabo Pulmo National Park ( Spanish : Parque Nacional Cabo Pulmo ) is a national marine park on the east coast of Mexico 's Baja California Peninsula , spanning the distance between Pulmo Point and Los Frailes Cape, approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Cabo San Lucas in the Gulf of California . Bahía Pulmo is home to the oldest of only three coral reefs on the west coast of North America. Cabo Pulmo is estimated to be 20,000 years old. The 27 square mile national park is home to 11 different species
The reef has a number of colonies [5] of hard coral atop rock outcroppings that run parallel to the coast, [6] occurring in progressively deeper water offshore. After organizing by local community groups, [7] the area was designated a national park in 1995, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005, and a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 2008. The conservation of the park, has been important for a local ecosystem recovery from overfishing as well as an improvement to the local economic wellbeing. [7
On June 5, 1995, newly elected as of December 1995, [9] Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo declared the 71.11-square-kilometre (27.46 sq mi) area surrounding Cabo Pulmo a federally protected National Marine Park. On May 2, 1997, Jose Luis Pepe Murrieta was the first volunteer Park Director appointed by the INE (National Ecological Institute).Universidad Autónoma de Baja Calif came in to research local fishing patterns and ways to protect the fish populations, they ended up helping to lobby the government int