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The Cozumel News in English
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Each week we select articles from local newspapers that amuse or interest us and then translate them into English. We wish to stress that these translations are literal --English versions of exactly what was originally written in Spanish by reporters for Por Esto, Diario de Quintana Roo, Novedades and El Seminario. It should also be mentioned that we cannot always verify the facts in the stories we publish here. We leave that job to the newspaper that originally published the article. We appreciate hearing from our readers so please feel free to E-Mail US your questions, suggestions and comments. You may also wish to consider starting a discussion on any topic below that interests you by posting on the Living on Cozumel Forum.
Note: These articles are a great deal of work to find and translate. They are under copyright. But we all know what a temptation it is to want to share interesting info all over the internet. We don't mind you copying short snippets. But .....
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The
Cozumel News in English, Vol 24
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March 12-19, 2005 |
Please note we have temporarily lost our expert local translator and in the interim, the editors are soldiering through with the help of some pricey translation software and the very kind assistance of Israel Sanchez, a professional translator who has volunteered to help us with the more difficult passages. (Thanks, Izzy!)
CRUISE SHIP DAMAGES REEFS AND ALMOST RUNS DOWN A DIVE PARTY |
According to the report filed by the dive operation, Aqua Safari with Cozumel's National Marine Park office, on Thursday 17 at 15:30 hours the Carnival cruiseship Inspiration passed within a meter and a half (60") of a group of 12 divers who were exploring the bottom of reef Paraíso at the time.
According to the reports of dive masters with Aqua Safari, the force of the propellers raised sediment so that it was impossible to see the palm of your hand.
This situation produced panic among the divers who scattered away this way and that fearing for their lives and at the same time taking a risk of being sucked up into the enormous propellers.
After the report, the administration of the park acted immediately and notified the Harbor Master's Office and Profepa to be sure that the cruiseship did not leave the port without recognizing the incident and agreeing to abide by the evaluation of damages and any actions that might later be taken.
In the meantime the Profepa requested the support of the PGR to commence a formal collection of fact to be presented before the Federal Attorney General's office. The formal inspection and subsequent complaint will evaluate damages and determine responsibility not only for risking the lives of the divers and their guides but also for crossing a forbidden area of the National Park, thereby causing grave damage.
The cruiseship Inspiration which was scheduled to leave a 21:00 was not allowed to get underway until midnight.
TIME TO CREATE A PROTECTED AREA FOR SPOTTED EAGLE RAYS |
Cozumel diving guides are asking the environmental and other correspondent authorities to decree an area on the north zone of the island as a natural area for spotted eagle rays. This would prevent them from being killed by fishermen, says dive guide, Jaime Monsreal Pamplona, who said that you can meet rays in this area up to 5 meters in length.
He went on to explain that large-sized rays exist right now all around the island but there is a particular breeding grounds in the north zone where December to March as many as 15 rays have been seen at one time
The big rays are now not so plentiful as once they were, he continued, thanks in part to the fact that their offspring are the principal food source for cod and porgy. But also because they are sought by fishermen who often poach them without permissions.
"It has been scientifically proven that the spotted eagle ray's tongue helps to cure asthma," the guide told us. The meat is also very much in demand.
This has resulted in a great exploitation of a breed that, while not currently on the endangered species list, may soon join it if things keep up as they have been.
It is therefore necessary to decree a spotted eagle ray protected area where they can live and breed in peace. Because less and less are arriving every year and if this problem is not taken care of soon, they will cease to come at all.
Monsreal Pamplona commented that diving guides that don't have permissions to enter the marine park, often take divers to this attraction instead during the 3-month season when they come to Cozumel's northern coast.
"This species can be sighted to five meters in length by four meters in width and, being a very fearful sort, groups of no more than 4 divers at a time can swim out to them without giving them a big scare. "
Jaime Monsreal Pamplona asked for the Semamat, the Marine Park and other correponding authorities to to declare the area in front of Hotel Cantarell a “Spotted Eagle Ray Protected Habitat”. Otherwise, their disappearance will be imminent. He concluded by saying that since the rays are not on any endangered species list, their fishing is now quite common, which could easily result in the rays not returning to Cozumel in the near future.
RESCUE AFTER TWO DAYS AT SEA |
Four Cozumel fishermen were on the brink of losing their lives at sea due to a problem with their boat. José Iradiel Ayala, Heraclio Manzanero Martín, Gregorio and Nazario Uc Ciau were found together with the boat, Vania Fabiola, 15 miles east of Punta Molas.
At nine o'clock they were rescued by a ship of the Naval Fleet of Mexico, as part of an intense sea and air operation that had been launched as soon as the men were reported missing.
The fishermen. left Isla de la Pasion at Cozumel's Northern tip on March 8 to catch enscama. But they did not return. That evening the disappearance was reported to the Harbor Master's Office .
From that moment a search operation was established between the civil authorities, the Harbor Master's office and Cozumel's Naval Subsector.
They combed the zone with speedboats, a helicopter and a light airplane, but the cold front did not enable the pluck up quest to be continuous during Thursday.
"On Thursday, we traveled all the way around the island -- 35 miles in 3 and a half hours , but the lack of visibility handicapped us from continuing the search," said, the secretary-general of Cozumel's Fishing Cooperative.
At 3:30 PM of the second day they were tracked by the Naval patrol boat Veracruz after being spotted from the air by helicopter and were then hauled aboard and transferred to Cozumel. The four fishermans' relatives waited anxiously but were only allowed to see them after they each had a medical check up.
Cozumel's Fishermen Cooperative commented that the incident should serve as a lesson and a chastisement to any future fishermen who go out without equiping themselves with the minimal means to navigate with certainty and that the Harbor Master's Office should “give a severe reprimand to all the involved fishermen as well as apply all the respective penalties” for failing to take the necessary precautions when venturing into deep waters.
Lacking not only a radio, but also emergency flares. The boat went adrift when the gears of the steering system got stuck.
They survived their experience at sea because they took 15 liters of water, chicken broth and raincoats.
In like manner, the past Saturday the yacht, Solares, coming out of Cozumel with four foreign tourists on an excursion became stranded in front of Puerto Aventuras, when their motors failed. They continued to be counted missing for 12 hours although they returned without misadventures on the following day. The proprietor of the vessel was fined because he did not have permissions to give this type of tourist excursion services.
COZUMEL HOTELS PLAN RENOVATION |
Cozumel Hotel Association president Gaston Cantarell Diaz says that "he who doesn't remodel will be left behind" when it comes to hotel business on the island. In just a few days Cantarell will publicly report on hotel growth for the coming year, the renovation of island hotels, and the construction of an important number of new rooms.
All of this as Cozumel is registering the highest occupation numbers in thirty years; the number of commercial flights has increased by 115 percent; and the island's infrastructure has improved dramatically with the waterfront street project completion.
The association president recently attended the formal inauguration for the northern coastal road-resurfacing project. The tourism promotion trust and city hall are investing more than 2 million pesos into rehabilitating this stretch of road. Cantarell Diaz stresses the significance of this particular undertaking because the northern road pioneered tourism on the island. Early visitors to Cozumel frequented that particular stretch of boulevard, which was unpaved in those years. " Now, with so much competition from the rest of the world, it's important to continually refurbish and always maintain a good infrastructure," he said.
FIERY AFTERNOON IN COZUMEL |
In a matter of two hours three fires were registered in the downtown area but fortunately there was only material losses..
The first , an oil fire in one of the island's best-known coffee shops, Pan y Cafe on the town's main plaza, occurred at 17:30. hours, Damages were only minimal and material since fortunately the employees of the place reacted quickly to quell the fire with three extinguishers.
Soon after the Heroic Corps of Firemen arrived and applied chemical dry dust to make sure that the fire was completely out and offered medical attention to Fernando Pérez Zendejas who had poisoned himself on the dust emmitted by the extinguishers used to put out the fire in the coffee house's kitchen. The owner, president of Coparmex, Federico Ruiz Piña, assured that the restaurant would be back to business again in just a few hours.
The fireman hadn't even wrapped up the inspection of the first place when the dispatcher received another call for help, indicating that a room at Avenida 25 and Adolfo Rosado Salas had caught fire. They immediately headed for this place, only a few blocks away, and found a room on the second floor on fire.
A total of six thousand liters of water was necessary to quell this fire and and afterwards an inspection determined that the fire had been provoked by a short circuit in a lamp that had then fallen onto a mattress upon which sat a suitcase of clothing..
The third damage occurred at 19:00 hours on Calle 7 Sur between Avenida 20 and 25 at the property of Cristina Casanova who was letting a room to a sign painter whose name she did not know..
According to the commander of the Bomberos Carlos Mis Ortegón, the fire was caused by a person grabbing a smoke in the bathroom and then carelessly tossing the cigarette butt in the trash can for paper which then burst into flame. However with the intervention of a neighbor who came running with a small bucket of water, they narrowly avoided a dangerous catastrophe as the place was full of cans of aerosol paint because the renter was a sign painter by trade.
. 10 fireman participated In the three interventions under the comand of Comandante Carlos Mis Ortegón. A pump and hose utilized 6 thousand liters of water. An ambulance and an inspection truck were also utilized.
ANOTHER CAR & CARGO FERRY COMING SOON |
Transbordadores del Caribe is currently readying a second car ferry for operation beginning in mid-April at a cost of approximately five million dollars. Roberto Chami Lizarraga, general manager of the shipping company, indicated that they made this decision based on the consciousness that there are customers that wish to cross over on a pre-determined and more regular schedule.
The new car ferry which is currently sailing across the zone of San Juan, Puerto Rico is very similar in design to the Super Flex Trader and is registered with the Secretary's Office of Communications and Transportation under the name of "Bahía del Espíritu Santo"
. In the next few days the ship will arrive in Havana, Cuba where painting and other maintenance and refitting will be done in order to supply a vessel that is in fine condition for customers.
The manager indicated that they hope to begin operations around the middle of the month of April, at which point the vessel will be set aside, just like their current ship in the fleet to transport cargo and cars.
He also stated that when the competition was in operation, his company only served 75% of the captive market. But now his business plan assumes that with the addition of this new vessel they will serve 100%.
On a slightly different subject, he manifested that although they don't keep statistics of the percentages and quanity of tons of perishable goods that are transported to the island, they have definitely noticed an increase in the transportation of construction materials which seems to indicate that the building industry has had a considerable recovery. There has also been a considerable increase in the number of automobiles making the crossing because the 250 peso promotional fare that became effective in November of 2004 remains in place.
MARCELA'S WILD RIDE -- She Rolled a Moped and Didn't Know It! |
The accident occurred at the corner of avenida 25 and Juárez, where a grey Volkswagen Pointer was being driven west to east by Marcela Torres Hernández. The aforementioned driver ignored the stop sign and invaded the artery preferentially. At this point the car's front left-hand bumper collided with a standard type blue moped that was headed north to south on Avenida 25 driven by Raúl Martín González.
Upon impact, the driver of the moped crashed to the payment leaving the moped itself still beneath the car. Meanwhile the driver continued her race to flee from her responsibility leaving the injured person without rendering any time of help
. The driver continued on to Avenida 30 still dragging the moped beneath her car, then changed directions and veered to the south until she reached Adolfo Rosado Salas, where desperate to get away, she drove down the street the wrong way, not stopping at the stop sign and finally crashing into the metal curtain of the stationary store, La Rosita, breaking some glass in the place.
Eyewitnesses indicated that in spite of shouting at the aforementioned driver that she was going the wrong way, running a stop sign and dragging a sparking moped beneath the chassis of her VW, she did not stop. Until she hit the metal curtain of Rositas. At this point she climbed out of the vehicle seemingly unscathed.
Both vehicles were transferred to the Deputy Managership's transit yards. In the meantime the driver of the motorcycle, Raúl Martín González, was taken to the hospital for treatment after receiving immediate attention at the scene by paramedics. Marcela was taken into custody.
"ECOCIDIO" -- ILLEGAL DESTRUCTION OF A PROTECTED AREA IS UNCOVERED |
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Grave " ecocidio" has taken place at kilometro post 14.150 of the southern hotel zone where 1000 sq meters of red mangrove has been destroyed in order to begin construction of a private beach front villa. Apparently, the construction permit was authoritized during the administration of then mayor Félix González Canto. However, the permission are no longer valid..
The Office of Urban and Ecological Management closed the construction down late Wednesday when the red mangrove destruction, a direct violation of rules set up by the Secretary for the Environment and Natural Resources, was discovered.
With regard to this matter Jesús Cambranes Lozano, director of the Office of Urban Works and Ecology for the municipality said that the construction was censured due to the damage that it produced to the red mangroves of the zone. The foundation should not have been laid flat out on the mangroves but rather raised up on cement posts above the swamp so that the water had a clear way to the sea.
When owners Alicia María Filipini's and her husband visited the above-mentioned place, they were informed that the aforementioned construction had no respect for the environmental criteria for this zone and they were allowed only to prune the mangroves -- not lay waste to them. And of course there was also the matter of cement pilings not having been constructed.
Cambranes Lozano, indicated that the owners and/or the engineer in charge of the project (Paco Dias) must show up at his office with all the papers including the building permit, the project approval letter and the environmental impact statement. All these papers will be reviewed in great detail.
On another note, on this same day the city office discovered another razing -- of approximately 2,500 meters of ground that had been levelled next to the International pier. The proprietor disowns any responsibility for making this work. .It seems no city permissions had been given and seals were placed to immobilize a rented machine which had been hired to do the levelling while this mystery is sorted out.
CITYMAR HOLDS AUTHORITIES RESPONSIBLE |
Guadalupe Alvarez Chulim, president of the enironmental group Heaven Earth and Sea (Citymar) blames municipal and federal authorities for the terrible ecological damage to a mangrove zone at the coastal southern road;
The principal responsible, according to Alvarez Chulim, would have had to be the director of the National Marine Park, as his approval would be compulsory before a bulding lot could be placed within the park.
Regarding the devastation of the mangroves in the hotel southern zone at kilometer 14 of the coastal road, she indicated that the mangroves are federally protected areas according to 1998 Marine National Park Law. The mangroves are given special protection but it is illegal also to deforest, destroy, desicate or fill lagoons, ponds and swamps.
In addition, a new federal law was passed in 2002 pertaining to other modifications to the line of the coast and forbids the creation of artificial beaches , the removal or movement of dunes and the filling or felling of trees in coastal zones.
When construction is done in this brutal manner, the Citymar president continued, water from the mangroves does not circulate properly and important nutrients necessary for the life of the reefs do not reach their destination. In other words, the nutrition chain is broken and the reefs suffer grave damage.
She concluded by saying that as soon as the necessary proofs had been gathered formal charges would be filed before Profepa (The Federal Attorney General's Office for the Protection of the Environment) in regard to the possible involvement of municipal and federal officials in this affair.
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