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The Prescott College Kino Bay
Center for Cultural and Ecological Studies and the community of Bahía
de Kino, working with Mexican National Institute of Ecology (INE), and regional
conservation entities in the region, are developing a management strategy for
Alcatraz Island in Bahía de Kino, Sonora, Mexico. The idea for this
project stemmed from a National Science Foundation-funded planning
workshop hosted at the Kino Bay Center in January 1999. The project on Alcatraz
raises
awareness of island issues and promotes community stewardship and island
conservation in the entire Eastern Midriff Island Region of the Gulf of California.
Isla Alcatraz is a small volcanic island located in the Midriff Islands,
less than one mile from the town of Bahía de Kino, Sonora, Mexico.
Isla Alcatraz lies within the Gulf of California
Island Reserve and Wildlife and Migratory Bird Refuge (Island Reserve) administered by the Mexican national
government. Alcatraz is representative of the islands within the Island Reserve
in its ecological importance as well as its risk from human impact.
 The tiny (1.44 km2) island supports the Gulf of California’s largest
breeding colony of Double-crested
Cormorants, as well as smaller breeding
populations of Yellow-footed Gulls, Great
Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Herons, Reddish Egrets, Cattle Egrets,
Black-crowned Night-Herons, Yellow-crowned
Night-Herons, and White Ibis.
Adjacent to the Midriff Islands’ largest fishing community, Isla Alcatraz
has a long history of human
use and significance for the surrounding communities.
Today, the island is used by fishermen, tourists, students and researchers;
and as an anchorage for up to 120 shrimp boats daily.
Human use impacts the island ecosystem. The most significant threats to
the island's flora and fauna are human disturbance of breeding birds and
the spread or further introduction of exotic species. Isla Alcatraz’s
proximity to human settlements makes it highly susceptible to disturbance,
yet that proximity also increases the potential for community involvement
in research, education and conservation.
As a result of recommendations made at the planning workshop, the Isla Alcatraz
Program has become the focus of Prescott College’s conservation and
research activities in the Kino Bay region. In 1998 the center established
a Conservation Fellowship
Program to enable Prescott College to make tangible
contributions to conservation of the region’s marine and coastal biodiversity,
and to establish continuity in the conservation and community outreach projects
initiated by the center. The Isla Alcatraz Program is the focus of the fellowship
until the program’s completion in 2005.
Student activities have been focused on the Isla Alcatraz Program as well.
Since 1999, Prescott College classes in statistics, marine conservation,
marine biology, photography, coastal ecology, and geographic information
science, as well as senior project students, have contributed to research,
education and outreach projects within the Isla Alcatraz Program.
-
 The Isla Alcatraz Program has been divided into five
phases.
- The Isla Alcatraz Program is currently in its first
phase: description of the island. This phase includes a complete
biological and human use inventory, and ongoing
education and community outreach projects.
- To see the participants in the Isla Alcatraz Program, click here.
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