Chankanaab Park Eyed as Site for Cozumel’s First Dolphin Sanctuary

Cozumel, Quintana Roo — Chankanaab Park is the leading candidate to host Cozumel’s first dolphin sanctuary, a project that has already been discussed with the head of Quintana Roo’s Secretariat of Ecology and Environment, according to Juanita Alonso Marrufo, director general of the Cozumel Parks and Museums Foundation.

Alonso Marrufo said the idea is shared by Environment Secretary Óscar Rébora Aguilera, but stressed that all required permits and viability studies must be completed first so the site can operate as a dedicated space for the protection of dolphins.

She explained that the sanctuary would function separately from the dolphin habitat currently operating at the park, serving specifically as a refuge area for the animals. Before moving forward, she added, authorities must determine which part of Chankanaab has the conditions needed to host the animals and whether additional infrastructure would be required.

The comments come just over a month after Rébora Aguilera said the Secretariat of Ecology had begun initial technical studies aimed at creating the first dolphin sanctuary in Latin America. At the time, he said officials were reviewing several locations on the island, including existing dolphinariums and natural sites, to identify where the project could be built or adapted. A dolphinarium operated by the company The Dolphin Discovery currently operates at Chankanaab.

With both agencies in agreement, Chankanaab now stands out as the most advanced of the options explored so far. The project remains subject to environmental permits and to a technical decision on the specific area within the park where the sanctuary could be installed.

Authorities are also weighing the project’s impact on a coral reef zone and on a site that hosts reforestation and coral recovery programs. Those efforts have succeeded in increasing the number of specimens grown from fragments of other organisms, according to the managers of the coral farm.