This year, more than 1,500 whales visited that lagoon - a record number. We are aware of the steady increase in the counts of gray whales in the larger, deeper lagoon where Mitsubishi's existing salt works is located. This cannot be attributed to the presence of the salt works. It is due to the recovery of the gray whale over the last three decades since the end of their commercial slaughter. Japan and some other nations would like to overturn the current international ban on whaling.
Gray whales are sensitive to noise and human disturbance.
From 1957 to 1967, grays were rarely observed using the smaller of the two lagoons near the existing salt works where the company had barge operations and had to dredge the mouth of the lagoon. The environmental impacts of ESSA's existing salt works at Guerrero Negro have only been formally reviewed once in its 40 year history. Aside from the direct impacts, the creation of the salt works there led to a swelling of Guerrero Negro's population from less than 100 forty years ago to some 10,000 today. In January 1998, the local fisherman complained that toxic releases from the salt works were responsible for the deaths of a hundred or more endangered sea turtles. Like environmental reviews in the United States, the study is being prepared by contractors.