Cruise industry expansion collides with Cozumel’s coral reef

Villa Blanca Reef off Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula is home to emblematic and endangered species, and is the site a coral restoration project with 35 platforms growing different species of coral. Now, it’s ground zero in a fierce local battle — one that pits residents of the island of Cozumel and scientists against cruise ship developers planning to build a kilometer-long (0.6-mile) pier directly through the reef.

Cozumel, a small island off the southeastern coast of Mexico, is one of the most popular cruise ship destinations in the world. More than 4.5 million tourists visit every year, according to the Cozumel municipal government, averaging between 385,000 and 250,000 per month on an island with only around 100,000 inhabitants. Most tourists disembark from one of the three existing piers, leading into a maze of privatized beaches, nightclubs, restaurants and hotels catering to the constant influx of tourists.

In December 2021, the company Muelles del Caribe S.A. de C.V. received environmental authorization from SEMARNAT, the Mexican environment ministry. Soon after, it was granted the concession to build a fourth pier by SICT, the transport and infrastructure ministry. In May 2025, the company deployed a testing platform near the reef; on June 10, it publicly announced that construction was underway.

“When we researched and inquired about the construction of the pier, the exact location was purposely kept imprecise at the announcement,” said Rodrigo Huesca, one of the leading activists in Cozumel and representative for the Cozumel Island Citizen Collective. Huesca said it took him and his team several weeks to determine that the pier is to be constructed on Cozumel’s last public beach and on top of the Villa Blanca coral reef.

The move sparked an outcry from the general population of Cozumel. Divers, marine biologists and fishermen came together to protest on ships, underwater, and on the streets. The situation quickly went viral, with videos posted on social media drawing national and international attention to the issue.

The Villa Blanca reef is a rich and complex ecosystem, harboring more than 120 marine species, including endangered whitespotted eagle rays (Aetobatus narinari) and critically endangered elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata), according to an assessment by the Cozumel Coral Reef Restoration Program (CCRRP). The organization runs the base for the largest reef restoration project on the island, which tries to farm and repopulate the depleted elkhorn coral, among other species.

“The construction of this pier will be the last nail in the coffin for [coral] reefs of Cozumel,” said German Mendez, a marine biologist and founder of the CCRRP, adding that “the first nail in the coffin was the first pier that was constructed in 1994, despite our protests. But no one listened to us then either.”

Cozumel’s corals have been reduced by about 80% since 1982, according to CCRRP estimates. Mendez’s research found that the majority of the stress factors affecting the region’s coral reefs are related to cruise ships visiting the island and the booming tourism industry, which, he says, lacks the necessary infrastructure to sustain it.

“Firstly, there is no sewage system on land that can deal with the rapid expansion of the tourism industry,” Mendez said. “So all the sewage goes directly into the sea and contaminates the reefs.” According to Mendez and other researchers, each cruise ship discharges around 794,000 liters (210,000 gallons) of sewage and 3.78 million l (1 million gal) of “gray water” into Cozumel’s waters after a seven-day trip.

Mendez said that in addition to pollution, the large propellers of cruise ships, around 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter, swirl up sediment every time a ship docks, which can happen many times in a single day.

“No reef survives this blast of sand and dirt, over 14 times a day, seven days a week,” Mendez said.

The proposed pier itself, a kilometer-long concrete structure, would cut directly across Villa Blanca reef, disrupting sediment flows, with the potential of killing marine life across the entire sector.

In the environmental impact assessment conducted prior to pier construction and submitted to SEMARNAT in 2020, Muelles del Caribe said that, “The project will not be located in an area where reef communities could be affected,” and added “the project will not impact seagrass areas.”

According to Mendez, assessors from Muelles del Caribe damaged the landscape during the assessment process to make it seem like construction was going to occur on already-degraded land.

“When these people from the company came for the assessment, they used herbicides to kill the mangroves and claimed it was free to construct there,” Mendez said. “That was when we [activists within the community of Cozumel] figured out that something very wrong was going on here.”

Muelles del Caribe spokesperson José Luis Cervantes refuted Mendez’s claims.

“We categorically deny that any vegetation was removed by the consultants or any person who benefited from the project during the evaluation process for obtaining permits from the Ministry of the Environment,” Cervantes told Mongabay in an emailed statement.

More than 240 citizen comments were submitted during the public consultation process, according to SEMARNAT, many of them expressing concern over potential ecological and social impacts. However, SEMARNAT described the objections as “repetitive” and seemingly gave precedence to technical documentation supplied by the company, writing “the information contained in the [environmental impact assessment] is the responsibility of the project proponent, as well as its truthfulness and scope.”

In 2021, SEMARNAT approved the project, reportedly without independent verification of the assessment’s claims, and granted Muelles del Caribe an environmental impact approval.

The ministry didn’t respond to a request by Mongabay to explain how the approval was granted without a visit by its representatives or any independent verification. Cervantes asserted the ministry conducted an environmental evaluation and sent Mongabay an image of what he said was an official ministry document that supported his assertion. Mongabay could not verify the authenticity of the image.

“[I]n order to obtain authorizations, the authority conducts verification visits to confirm that the company’s statements are true to life,” Cervantes said. “That is, during the evaluation process for the studies, the Ministry conducted the corresponding technical visit to verify that the vegetation reported was what exists on the property and that there were no changes to it. ”

According to Huesca, the citizen activist, the construction project will also have social impacts for Cozumel residents, many of whom have been reliant on fishing for generations.

“[Muelles del Caribe] would also privatize the last public beach in Cozumel,” Huesca told Mongabay, saying this would block residents’ access to the sea. “And on this small space, we are being displaced by an already massive tourism industry,” he added.

Despite being one of the top cruise destinations in the world, Cozumel has the highest per capita debt of any municipality in Mexico, according to the government’s Center for Public Finance Studies (CEFP). According the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), 47.5% of residents in Quintana Roo state, which includes Cozumel, lived in poverty as of 2020 — despite living in one of Mexico’s most profitable tourist regions.

A 2019 study published in the journal Études Caribéennes showed only 0.86% of the income generated by the cruise industry ends up as wages for Cozumel residents, and just 17% of visitors use local guides or services.

“The companies like to deflect by offering financial incentives, and it often works for some people, but there is no coming back from this one if we don’t stop the construction,” Mendez said.

Cervantes refuted criticisms of the cruise industry. “The truth is that the island’s economy depends on the cruise industry for about 80% of its activity,” he said in an emailed statement. “It is also true that the largest generator of direct employment on the island is the cruise industry.”

Cervantes acknowledged the civic protests against the new pier, but noted there have also been public demonstrations in favor of the project.

“Yes, we know about the protests in favor of the pier,” Huesca told Mongabay, “but many people later told us they had been threatened — that if they didn’t attend, they would lose their jobs as construction workers.”

An image shared anonymously with Mongabay purported to show a text exchange with a construction worker in which the worker alleged they were forced to protest in favor of the pier, or risk losing their job.

The community’s protests against the project have made national headlines in Mexico, prompting President Claudia Scheinbaum to back away from an earlier statement in May when she said no permissions had been given to the company, shortly before construction began.

SEMARNAT has announced that it will revise the assessment and adherence to national environmental laws, though researchers such as Mendez are skeptical.

“I don’t think we will be able to change the minds inside the corrupt SEMARNAT, but we can continue this work to hinder the company from receiving permissions that are still outstanding,” Mendez said.

The most recent victory for Mendez and his fellow activists came in July, when the 5th District Court authorized a provisional suspension of the project, ordering the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (PROFEPA) to inspect the area designated for the pier’s construction.

While temporary, this halt constitutes a significant turn of events for Mendez, Huesco and other activists. They say they’re hopeful the civic pressure has generated enough attention to force the government’s adherence to its own environmental regulations.

Banner image: A black grouper at Palancar Reef, Cozumel, Mexico. Image by Jett Britnell / Ocean Image Bank.

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Citation:

Palafox-Muñoz, A., & Vilchis-Onofre, A. A. (2019). El lado obscuro del turismo de cruceros en Cozumel. Études Caribéennes, 43-44. doi:10.4000/etudescaribeennes.16562

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Morgan Erickson-Davis Editor

This story first appeared on Mongabay

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