These Are The Most Polluted Beaches In Los Cabos According To New Report

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Last Updated 9 months ago

Recently the Federal Commission for Protection Against Sanitation Risk or Cofepris set out to test the water quality of all of the Mexican beaches to see if any were not safe enough to swim in.

Any beaches that outright failed these tests are currently at risk of being closed off to beachgoers.

Thankfully all of the beaches in the Los Cabos area were deemed safe to swim in. 

There are, however, a couple of Cabo beaches that came closer to the breaking point than others.

Currently, they have to be considered the most polluted spots in the region. El Medano, Los Cabos’ most popular beach, was the worst-ranked beach in terms of water quality in the region.

Playa La Empacadora, the beach right next to the Los Cabos marina ranked as the second most polluted beach in Cabo. 

However, in both cases, it should be noted that these beaches are still considered well below dangerous levels of pollution and are considered safe.

How Safe Is Swimming In Playa El Medano 

The test that was run in all of the beaches across Mexico was looking for the level of “Enterococcus faecalis” bacteria that could be found in the ocean water.

This is a bacterium that is produced primarily in human or animal waste.

Since El Medano is the beach in Los Cabos that gets the most visitors a day on average, it’s not too surprising that it happens to feature the highest levels of human waste particles per 100 milliliters of water.

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In spite of the fact that El Medano is the beach that’s most polluted by human waste, the levels of the bacteria found in the water are still considered low.

The reading at El Medano was calculated at 25NPM per 100 milliliters of water. Just to put things into perspective, the limit set by authorities in Mexico is 200NPM per 100 milliliters.

That would put El Medano Beach well within the safe zone. Authorities, though, vow to continue to check the water quality at local beaches to ensure that these levels don’t rise.

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With the summer months coming to an end, El Medano Beach is set to have less busy days ahead to be able to recover a bit.

The hope is that the beach will remain at least at its current pollution level throughout the peak season in Cabo this upcoming winter.

This is when crowds are expected to reach similar or greater levels to the ones seen over the spring and summer.      

The Obvious Issues With Swimming Near The Cabo San Lucas Marina

Playa La Empacadora, which is the second most polluted beach in the Cabo area, only registered 23NPM per 100 milliliters of water.

This rate makes it still very safe to swim in. The only thing that has concerned local authorities is that these are two of the most frequented beaches in the area.

Plus, Playa La Empacadora has to potentially contend with the issue of being the closest to the Cabo San Lucas Marina.

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This means that it’s usually the beach that’s going to have to deal with pollution from the large number of boats that transit the area on a daily basis.

If travelers want to check the levels of bacteria from human waste at the Cabo beach they plan on visiting, they may be able to do so through the following link.

No Other Beaches In Baja California Sur Presented Any Issues

No other Cabo beach registered higher than 20NPM per 100 milliliters of water. In fact, that was the case for all of the other beaches in Baja California Sur.

This means that popular beaches in or near La Paz, like Balandra Beach, or popular spots such as Todos Santos are also perfectly safe for beachgoers.

Further up the Peninsula, though, that is not the case; in fact, two of the more popular beaches in Baja California Norte registered over the allowed 200NPM rate.

The beach right on the border in Tijuana and two beaches in the popular resort town of Rosarito are in danger of being closed down to the extremely high levels of “Enterococcus faecalis” bacteria present in the water.