Bahia de Kino

Bahía de Kino

Native name: Spanish: Bahía de Kino, Bahía Kino
Location of Bahía de Kino
Bahía de Kino Location in Mexico
Geography
Location	Gulf of California
Coordinates	28°49′00″N 111°56′00″W / 28.81667°N 111.93333°W / 28.81667; -111.93333
Administration
Mexico
State	Sonora
Demographics
Population	7,000 (2008)

Bahía de Kino is a town in the Mexican state of Sonora, Hermosillo (municipality), on the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California); it was named after Eusebio Kino. The name also applies to the adjacent bay between Tiburón Island and Punta San Nicolás, Sonora. The names Bahía de Kino, Bahía Kino and Kino Bay are used interchangeably.

The historic residents of the Bahía de Kino region were probably first documented in notes taken by Padre Eusebio Kino during his travels to the region in 1685 when he visited the bay and named it Bahia San Juan Bautista (Doode 1999). The local indigenous population was widely dispersed in small hunter-gatherer groups ranging from the Guaymas area as far north as present day Puerto Libertad. They called themselves Comcaac (Seri). The harsh environment of the coastal region dictated that the Comcaac live with a high degree of flexibility and resourcefulness, a characteristic that allowed them to remain free of contact with, and exploitation by, the Spaniards.

Although later Spanish expeditions to the region undertook to develop contacts with the various Comcaac groups, it is apparent from the record that the Comcaac remained autonomous and were never formally conquered (Griffen 1959). It was not until they formed economic bonds out of necessity – probably the need to purchase gasoline for outboard motors used on their small wooden boats during the late 1950s – that they started down the path of social and economic integration into wider Mexican culture (Felger & Moser 1991, Weaver et al. 2003). Wandering groups of Comcaac routinely passed through the Kino area, using cave shelters in the vicinity though there is scant evidence of any permanent presence in the immediate area.

The first Mestizo settlers to settle in the Bahia de Kino area arrived in the early 1920s to establish a small fishing camp near the site of the present day town. Fishing activity centered on the Totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi) a species much sought after and reported as abundant around nearby Isla Alcatraz (Chute, 1928, Bahre 2000, Doode 1999).