Isla Natividad is an island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 in the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 6 km west off Punta Eugenia, the northwestern headland

Headland

A headland is a point of land, usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends out into a body of water.Headland can also refer to:*Headlands and bays*headLand, an Australian television series...

 of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur

Baja California Sur

Baja California Sur , is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state on October 8, 1974, the area was known as the South Territory of Baja California. It has an area of , or 3.57% of the land mass of Mexico and comprises...

. 200 meters off its northwestern end lies Roca María at 27°53′33"N 115°13′19"W, with an area of 0.074 km². Isla Natividad is separated from the mainland at Punta Eugenia by Canal de Dewey (Dewey's Channel), and from Cedros Island

Cedros Island

Cedros Island is a Mexican island in the Pacific Ocean....

 (Baja California

Baja California

Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

), which is 15 km to the north, by Canal de Keller (Canal Kellett).

The island is part of Bahía Tortugas delegación of Mulegé municipality

Mulegé (municipality)

Mulegé is the northernmost municipality of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. It is the second-largest municipality by area in the country, with an area of 32,092.2 km² . In the census of 2010 it had a population of 59,114 inhabitants...

. It is 8.655 km² in area. At the 2001 census, the island had a population of 384, centered in Natividad, a community of abalone

Abalone

Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...

, lobster

Lobster

Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...

, and clam

Clam

The word "clam" can be applied to freshwater mussels, and other freshwater bivalves, as well as marine bivalves.In the United States, "clam" can be used in several different ways: one, as a general term covering all bivalve molluscs...

 fishermen, at the southeastern end (27°51′09"N 115°10′09"W). Connection to the mainland is facilitated by an airstrip

Isla Natividad Airstrip

Isla Natividad Airstrip is a private dirt airstrip located on the South East coast of Isla Natividad, Municipality of Mulegé, Baja California Sur, Mexico, an island located in the Pacific Ocean, 6 km West of the Baja California Peninsula. The airstrip handles air traffic service for the fishing...

. There is a lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 in the northern part.

Geography and ecology

It has steep rocky shores fringed by rocks and kelp

Kelp

Kelps are large seaweeds belonging to the brown algae in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera....

 except for a small sandy beach towards the mainland; there is one of the best beach breaks in North America however, called "Open Door". The island is barren and hilly with a peak 150 m high rising near its center. The flora

Flora

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...

 consists mainly of a dense cover of Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum is a prostrate succulent plant that is native to Africa, Western Asia and Europe. The plant is covered with large, glistening bladder cells, reflected in its common names of Common Ice Plant, Crystalline Iceplant or Iceplant.-Uses:Its leaves are edible, as with some...

and M. nodiflorum

Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum

Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum is a species of succulent plant in the ice plant family known by the common name slenderleaf ice plant. It is native to southern Africa, but it is known in many other places as an introduced species and sometimes an invasive weed, including several regions of Australia,...

, cacti

Cacti

-See also:* RRDtool The underlying software upon which Cacti is built* MRTG The original Multi Router Traffic Grapher from which RRDtool was "extracted".* Munin -External links:******...

, and small shrubs. There are no endemic plants or animals on Natividad due to its proximity to the mainland (it was probably part of the mainland several times during the ice age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

s, when sea level

Sea level

Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

s were lower). However, Mammillaria pondii and a little-researched Opuntioideae cactus, as well as Mentzelia hirsutissima var. nesiotes are found in few other places. Native land vertebrate

Vertebrate

Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...

s are few, including the deer mouse Peromyscus maniculatus

Peromyscus maniculatus

Peromyscus maniculatus is a rodent native to North America. It is most commonly called the Deer Mouse, although that name is common to most species of Peromyscus and is fairly widespread across the continent, with the major exception being the southeast United States and the far north.Like other...

and some lizard

Lizard

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...

s. Seabird

Seabird

Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...

s - namely Brandt's Cormorant

Brandt's Cormorant

The Brandt's Cormorant is a strictly marine bird of the cormorant family of seabirds that inhabits the Pacific coast of North America. It ranges, in the summer, from Alaska to the Gulf of California, but the population north of Vancouver Island migrates south during the winter...

 - and seals

Pinniped

Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...

 use the island as a breeding and resting site. Isla Natividad is one of the southernmost breeding locations of Cassin's Auklet

Cassin's Auklet

The Cassin’s Auklet is a small, chunky seabird that ranges widely in the North Pacific. It nests in small burrows and because of its presence on well studied islands in British Columbia and off California it is one of the better known auks...

 and a main breeding site for Black-vented Shearwater

Black-vented Shearwater

The Black-vented Shearwater is a species of seabird. The bird is 30–38 cm in size, with a 76–89 cm wingspan. Formerly considered a subspecies of the Manx Shearwater, its actual relationships are unresolved....

s.