'WINDOWS TO THE SEA' UPDATE: LEGISLATURE EVALUATES COMMUNITY'S PETITION Novedades de Quintana Roo

The State of Quintana Roo's 10th Legislature expressed their concern for Cozumel residents who may be losing their "windows to the sea".  The "Ventanas al Mar" movement rose up in opposition to the construction of new restaurant at the Punta Langosta pier.  The group has decided to solicit intervention at the executive federal level and with congress in order to resolve the conflict.

Local legislator Blanca Ux Mezo assured that the recently approved and published Citizen Participation Law allows initiatives to be brought by businessmen, municipal government or the local society.

On March 9, 2005 a group of Cozumel citizens expressed their concern to the state legislature about the proliferation of constructions that are detrimental to the island's beauty.   The result was a complaint made against CABI Company, which plans to construct a building that would block the panoramic view of the ocean.

Ux Mezo commented that Ventanas al Mar's audience with the legislature was backed up by videos of a recent march, past newspaper articles, and a petition with 7,546 residents' signatures.

HARBOR MASTER TALKS ABOUT BOAT DIVING SAFETY MEASURES--Boats to Be Sanctioned & a New Navigational Channel Put Into Effect El Semanario de Cozumel

Cozumel Harbor Master Genaro Escalante Medina,
represented that last week's accident where a diver was killed when he was dragged into the propeller of his private yacht has made many tourist fearful. However, he emphasized that this was an isolated incident that could have been prevented with more precautions in dealing with Cozumel waters..

The accident, he went on to say had less to do with any inexperience or lack of skill on the part of the captain and more to do with the bad conditions in the water at the time including the sea swell.

He remembered last year there was only one propeller accident which also was not the fault of the captain as the diver in this case was very inexperienced and slipped and fell into the water and was drawn into the propeller. Here again it was an accident where not a single thing could have been done.
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But to avoid future incidents of this kind he recommended that boat captains--particularly those not intimately familiar with working with divers in these waters -- should turn off their engine and let the diver swim to the boat rather than going looking about for them.

Another safety concern that is currently being dealt with is that some dive boats have been detected circulating very close to bathers principally in the Villablanca and the Paraíso's zone, an area given over largely to tourist .

They are currently cracking down hard on those captains who come in too close or too fast so as to avoid some lamentable accident if there is sea swell. And they can expect very large fines if they are caught doing this.

He represented that future accidents will also be avoided by the new system of marine navigation that is going into effect as part of the Work of the Century Cozumel improvements program that also included the renovation of the downtown waterfront area. Buoys and light signals will be employed to regulate direction, velocity and circulation of boats within the reef area. The regulated channel will extend from the Puerta Maya Paradise Reef area in the north 20 kilometers south to Punta Sur. It will be 100 meters wide.

ENERGY & PURE WATER OF COZUMEL WOULD BE ABLE TO SELL ELECTRICITY Diario de Yucatán

Friday, the company, Energy and the Pure Water Cozumel, received the Certificate of Clean Industry prize granted by Profepa. And, in the near future, they hope to begin selling energy to the airport of Cancún and to the hotels of the Riviera Maya through the submarine cable, informs the company's director, Moisés Parto Rodríguez.

The aforementioned company is the only one in the country working on a self-sufficiency project for generating low energy. The plant operates right now at about 40 percent of its capacity since it only supplies 24 members including the airport and the Cozumel town council.

Right now the island still relies largely on electricity from Playa del Carmen supplied by the submarine cable, however. But, ideally, the island should acquire its own power generators which would free it from its dependency on the power coming from Playa del Carmen in addition to electricity Energy & Pure Water may provide.

EXTRACTION OF MORE BLACK CORAL SHOULD NOT BE PERMITTED & ITS ILLEGAL INTRODUCTION MUST BE INVESTIGATED El Semanario de Cozumel

Victor Aguirre Hernández, representative of a union of 38 associates most of whom are found in the hotels but also some who offer goods from carts, asks that the local leader of commerce be watchful, vigilant and take a strong stand against foreigners who are introducing black coral to Cozumel without controls.

He indicated that they no longer attempt to obtain permissions to work with this material here, since they want to take care of the coral and not run out in the future due to over-exploitation..

But in the last years Cozumeleños have become aware of the over-exploitation of this resource and to the degree that people that do not come from the island bring it to sell it should be regulated, he said with strong feeling. .

He made a comment that those who prey unlawfully on the black coral should be stopped by the authorities for, in addition to endangering this natural resource, it creates unfair competition for Cozumeleños who are obeying the laws and protecting this resource for the future..

He said that the black coral business on Cozumel uses at the very least 30 kilos per week to satisfy the demands of tourists. And there are at least 15 workshops for fashioning black coral jewelry and other items which in turn support over 20 families who are dependent on this industry.
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Likewise, he said that there are people still extracting kilos of black coral illegally and there should be bigger and better vigilance by the authorities to try and control this.He also indicated that the people bringing black coral in from other parts come from Valladolid and Tizimin. But the majority of outside black coral comes in from Belize.

MORE FISHERMEN LOST AT SEA Diaro de Yucatán

Four Cozumel dive fishermen who foundered and were swept adrift in the Yucatán's Channel were rescued the day before yesterday at 6 PM by the cruiseship Carnival Glory, which transferred them to the port of Progresso.

The "Gabriela del Mar" is registered with the Cozumel Fishermen's Cooperative and carries the license #23040444223-7., The secretary of the cooperative confirmed that the fishermen belong to the group that works the Bay of Espiritu Santo

Two of the fishermen are brothers Nazario and Fortunato Uc Ciau, of 20 and 21 years. And, as they explained it to the Carnival Glory's crew, since it was closed season for lobster and caracol, they decided to come to Cozumel's sheltered anchorage area to practice diving for fish instead. But, thanks to a malfunction of their engine, they were cast adrift and moving away from Cozumel

The Carnival Glory,commanded by Captain Salvatore Rosello, was on its way from Cozumel to Progreso when it spotted the adrift boat at around 19:00 hours .thanks to the emergency light the fishermen kindled. The captain Rosello ordered the fishers' rescue, and the boat attached as a tow.

In the face of this second event in the same month, the fishing cooperative's executives wash their hands of any responsibility, since these accidents were principally caused by the fishermen's negligence. In this case, they did not have radio communication equipment and also had no respect for the safety signals being beamed out by the Capitan of the Port, preferring instead to navigate in a lackadaisical and easy-going manner.

Yesterday at seven o'clock in the morning, when the cruiser arrived at Progresso, the fishermen were brought ashore in the harbor pilots' boat. (The Carnival Glory docked at 9 in the morning, because when it arrived two hours before there was a 50 kilometers per hour wind blowing from the south which made it difficult and dangerous to navigate into the specialized cruiseship pier. )

When the cozumeleños were rescued one of them was found with a little rice bag containing 26 grams of marijuana. The individual said that it was for his private consumption. For the possession of the drug, the fishermen were delivered to policemen of the Federal Agency of Investigacióm and then to the Office of the Federal Attorney General in Mérida..

LION LOOSE ON TRANSVERSAL El Semanario de Cozumel

Several people that live in this zone claim that a lion's footprints have been seen and that a burro has been eaten. According to an investigation accomplished by Cozumel's Semanario, we managed to find out that the aforementioned lion walks along the roadside on the transversal road and that ejidatarios (natives) have seen it.

Once this subject was brought up, it came to light that he has already eaten a burro and they are afraid he will next go on to eating cattle or perhaps even people who might be taking a nature outing in the scrubland.

Likewise, we managed to find about that an ejidatario met the lion while drawing water from a well and started to run away to safeguard his life, because he was afraid of being attacked..

The lion's owner, Don Agustín admitted that the animal escaped after monkeying for a long time with the padlock on his cage which he finally managed to break and afterwards get away.

He indicated also that the lion is playful and if somebody sees it, they know he's the owner and should just inform him.Likewise he manifested that perhaps he could be caught and the best way to do this would be to find where he takes water and go there with the cage with pieces of meat inside it to lure the lion in. .

With a deep sentiment of pain, Don Augustín said that he never imagined this might happen and that he will regret very much if he loses his pet which he has owned since the lion was a cub. Also he said that he will not eat people unless they bother him,but when he gets hungry he will eat cattle or other animals in which case it is recommended that they kill him.

And, since there is no news of his lion, he will grant a thousand pesos of reward for the animal dead or alive. If a person feels threatened by the lion, he can kill him and keep the skin or else they can take it to his house located on the same transversal road.

He told us about his longed-for dream of having a mini-zoo tourist attraction which could not come true because the authorities would never give permission to construct this place.It would have been an attraction for the tourist who could have left payment at his entrance to pay for the feeding and care of the animals that are now in his house and include at this time deer, wild pigs, monkeys, doves, geese and many other animals' species.

But because as things are now, he no longer has the resources to keep on maintaining the lion, he grieves.

COUNCILMAN STANDS BEHIND GERMAN COMPANY Novedades de Q. Roo

Despite the fact that the IECOSA Corporation is not complying with their agreement to collect trash in Playa del Carmen, Cozumel city councilman Gustavo Maldonado still feels that they offer the most viable processing plan for the island's garbage.  Maldonado traveled to Germany as a member of an interdisciplinary committee formed to determine the destiny of Cozumel's disposable waste.

He emphasized that he is not concerned with the problem in Playa del Carmen because it is actually the municipality there that is not complying with IECOSA.  He underscored that after witnessing the company's work in three different German communities, he can whole-heartedly recommend them.

15 STORY HOTEL ON THE RISE IN NORTHERN HOTEL ZONE DESPITE REGULATIONS El Semanario de Cozumel

In spite of the fact that the Territorial Ecological Ordinance clearly establishes that construction in the northern hotel zone can only be 7 stories high, the director of urban development at the municipality, architect Jesús Cambranes Lozano, acknowledges that an authorization okayed directly by the town council does in fact exist to allow the development of a new hotel of 15 stories..

Before the new ordinance went into effect in May of 2003, the maximium height that was allowed for construction in the. northern zone was 5 levels and 17 meters of height. But the new rules allowed 7 stories and up to 24 meter in height which is why the agreement has been transgressed by plans for the new 15 story hotel to be developed on the site of the now extinct and demolished Hotel Principe.

However, Cambranes Lozano explained than in some cases the permissions about the height are given because the area is not an environmentally impacted zone itself and, besides there's already a hotel on one side with much height.

"It should be made clear that this request did not pass through the department of urban works nor did we receive notification of it in any sense but we know that because of the extra official way the project was authorized that the decision was made with the direct consent of the town council and this is permissible within the POET so we did not consider this to be breaking the law," the Urban Development Director emphasized

The municipal official exposed that if his office had received this request to to construct such a quantity of floors, however, he would have refused it. But this project was driven through by the town council.

Certainly the POET is more flexible in the north zone, he continued. But right now this is a subject that does not directly concern this administration's urban development office, which has the power to grant licenses of construction.

He underlined than the hotel southern zone is a different and more drastic story in terms of the application and enforcement of the terretorial ecological plan. Because in that area exists a lot of vegetation--mangroves and some natural reserves that would be affected which would also impact very seriously on the offshore reef systems there.,

CHARGING FOR BEACH ACCESS WILL NOT BE PERMITTED Novedades de Q. Roo

"The beaches are public domain and anyone charging for access to them will be sanctioned", asserted the delegate for the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources.  Delegate Roberto Aguilera Hernandez was on the island recently to celebrate the grand opening of the Federal Maritime Land Zone administration and regulation offices.  During the last three years this department has permitted more than 50 concessions, taking in fees totaling approximately 3 million pesos per year.

There are very few public beaches on Cozumel's western coastline and the majority of them charge or regulate their use.  The situation has resulted in complaints from a majority of island residents, who don't have transportation to the other side of the island.

The delegate made it clear that access to Cozumel's beaches should not be conditional and anyone who tries to make it so, will be fined.

 

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