Baja California Sur

State of northwestern Mexico, occupying the southern part of the Baja California peninsula between the Gulf of California and the Pacific; area 73,700 sq km/ 28,456 sq mi; population (2000 est) 423,500. Its capital is La Paz. The main products are cotton, olives, and sugar cane. There are fish packing plants, salt works, and copper mines. It attracts many US tourists for fishing, whale-watching (grey whales winter here), swimming, and sunbathing.

The San Ignacio Lagoon, one of only three-winter breeding grounds for the grey whale and also an important breeding ground for migratory birds, is under threat from a 1996 plan to build a salt-production plant here.