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…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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