Mar Libre
“Free Sea”
Mar Libre is a citizen volunteer group that cleans La Paz's reefs and mangroves every month and teaches schoolchildren about marine pollution. It started in 2015, when a group of divers got tired of finding fishing line and trash on the reef at San Rafaelito, and its monthly cleanups are an easy way to get involved: watch the Facebook page for the next one and show up.
What Mar Libre Does
Monthly cleanups
Every month volunteers clean a reef or a mangrove. Divers, kayakers, surfers, sailors, students and biologists all take part. 103 cleanups by January 2024.
School talks
Talks about plastic and marine pollution in La Paz schools all year. In 2023 alone: 5,418 students in 33 schools, over 225 sessions.
Big shoreline days
A March 2021 cleanup at El Magote with 200 volunteers pulled out 8.4 tonnes of trash in one day. The group estimates more than 140 tonnes removed since 2015.
Reefs that recover
Repeat visits pay off: at Pargo reef near Isla Cerralvo, the fishing line collected fell from about 100 kg in 2015 to about 1 kg in 2017.
Join a Cleanup
- Follow Mar Libre on Facebook: each cleanup is announced there with the day, place and time
- Show up at the time and place given, ready to help
- Reef cleanups are done by diving; ask on the Facebook page how to join one underwater
- Mar Libre also holds musical fundraising events; watch the same page
Mar Libre has no office, paid staff or registered nonprofit status: it runs on volunteers. Marine biologist Pablo Ahuja is one of its founders; Xchel Pérez Palafox is listed as coordinator.