Guadalupe Island (Spanish: Isla Guadalupe) is a volcanic island located 241 kilometres (130 nautical miles) off the western coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula and about 400 km (200 nmi) southwest of the city of Ensenada in the state of Baja California, in the Pacific Ocean.[1] The various volcanoes are extinct or dormant. In 2005 Guadalupe Island and its surrounding waters and islets were declared a biosphere reserve to restore its vegetation (decimated by feral goats) and to protect its population of marine mammals and birds. The island is a popular destination for great white shark cage diving. Guadalupe Island is inhabited only by scientists, military personnel operating a weather station, and a small group of seasonal fishermen. The island is mostly arid and has very little surface water.
The two other Mexican island groups in the Pacific Ocean that are not on the continental shelf are the Revillagigedo Islands and Rocas Alijos. Guadalupe Island and its islets are the westernmost region of Mexico.[2]
The first known sighting of Guadalupe Island was in 1602 when a Spanish expedition headed by Sebastián Vizcaíno sailed by but did not land on the island. In the late 18th and 19th centuries the island was frequently visited by fur seal, otter, and elephant seal hunters. Goats were probably introduced by seal hunters in the early 1800s and quickly increased their numbers, nearly eradicating the indigenous vegetation.[3]
The 2010 census recorded a population of 213 people on the island.[4] In 2015, it was estimated to have fewer than 150 permanent residents.[5] Guadalupe is part of Ensenada delegación, one of the 24 delegaciones or subdivisions of Ensenada Municipality of the Mexican state of Baja California. Ensenada delegación and Chapultepec delegación together form the city of Ensenada, the municipal seat of the namesake municipality. The postal code of Guadalupe Island is 22997.
Campo Oeste ("West Camp", also called Campo Tepeyac, with 15 buildings) is a small community of abalone and lobster fishermen, located on the western coast,[6] specifically on the north side of West Anchorage, a bay that provides protection from the strong winds and swells that whip the islands during winter. Generators provide electricity, and a military vessel brings 30,000 litres (7,900 US gal)[citation needed] of freshwater. The number of fishermen varies annually depending on the fishing season. Ten months of the year the 30 families of the fishing cooperative "Abuloneros and Langosteros of Guadalupe Island" are present.[7]
Additional temporary fishing camps are Campo Norte ("North Camp", four buildings), Campo Lima (Campo Corrals) (one building) and Arroyitos (four buildings).[8]
At the southern tip, on Melpómene Cove, there is a weather station staffed by a detachment from the Mexican Ministry of the Navy.[when?] The site is called Campamento Sur ("South Encampment").[citation needed]
Campo Bosque was established as a temporary camp in 1999 in the cypress forest in the north. The camp houses members of the Cooperative Farming Society "Francisco Javier Maytorena, S.C. of R.L." and removes goats from the island and sells them in the State of Sonora, with permission of Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) and the support of the Secretariat of the Navy.
Campo Pista is located at the small airport, near the center of the island (29°01′24.04″N 118°16′21.75″W / 29.0233444°N 118.2727083°W / 29.0233444; -118.2727083, elevation: 592 m, direction: 05/23).[9] Airport Isla Guadalupe (ICAO Code MMGD) has a 1,200-metre-long (3,900 ft) runway. At the end of the runway near threshold 5 is the wreckage of a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar,[10] which overshot the runway during landing. A North American B-25J-30/32 Mitchell, BMM-3501 (c/n 44-86712), bomber wrecked on the opposite end of the runway, after suffering serious damage in trying to take-off overloaded (29°01′36.10″N 118°16′2.98″W / 29.0266944°N 118.2674944°W / 29.0266944; -118.2674944). The B-25 wreckage was removed between October 2005 and June 2006.[11]
Because Guadalupe Island is located within a biosphere reserve, anyone visiting the island must obtain a permit from the Mexican government; this means the communities on the island are closed towns.[6][12][13]
Guadalupe Island has a rugged landscape composed of two shield volcanoes which formed on a now extinct mid-ocean ridge.[14][15] They are overlain by lava flows and cinder cones that were emplaced along northwest-southeast and northeast-southwest trending fissure vents. The youngest shield volcano comprises the northern end of the island and may have formed during the Holocene epoch. A series of very fresh-looking alkali basalt flows along with trachyte domes in the northern shield volcano caldera represent the most recently formed rocks on Guadalupe Island.[15]
The island measures 35 kilometres (22 mi) north-south and up to 9.5 kilometres (6 mi) east-west, with a total area of 243.988 km2 (94+13⁄64 sq mi). It features a chain of high volcanic mountain ridges which rises to a height of 1,298 metres (4,259 ft) at its northern end (Mount Augusta). Its smaller counterpart on the southern end is the 975 metres (3,199 ft) El Picacho.[16] The southern part of the island is mostly barren, but there are scattered stands of trees at higher elevations of the northern part of the island and in the Twin Canyon area on the northeast coast. The coast generally consists of rocky bluffs with detached rocks fronting some of them. Two high and prominent islets are within three kilometres (1.9 mi) of the southwestern end of the island, separated from one another by a gap called Tuna Alley:
Elsewhere, the other islets are very small and close to the shore, all less than one kilometre (1⁄2 nmi) away:
The island has two major climate zones: a very arid, warm climate between 0 and 800 metres (0 and 2,625 feet) elevation, with mean monthly temperature between 15.5 and 20.3 °C (59.9 and 68.5 °F) and an arid, temperate climate above 800 metres (2,600 ft) elevation.[citation needed]
Most precipitation occurs over the winter months with a strong influence of northwestern winds and cyclones.[citation needed]
Rainfall averages 133 millimetres (5.2 in) near sea level at the south end, but appears to be much more at the high north end. An estimate for the rainfall in the northern highlands is possible by way of taking Pinus radiata as an indicator, which is native to that area of the island. In other places where Pinus radiata is native, it grows best with about 750 millimetres (30 in) of rainfall but under some conditions can survive with as little as half that much. The effective moisture is much greater because of fog drip.[17]
