As the recipient of the first Blue Flag of its kind in Mexico, the Marina Riviera Nayarit is setting the standards that will help adapt the criteria of this award from a beach certificate to one for marinas.

The Blue Flag inspections took place at the beach in Nuevo Vallarta Norte and at the Marina Riviera Nayarit on November 9-10, 2015; the results were positive and seamless.

The personnel from the Blue Flag Mexico National Organization inspected and verified that all the criteria necessary for this international certification were met. As far as services were concerned they examined the parking lot, facilities, information modules, bathrooms, signage and accessibility for the disabled, among other things.

They also held real-time drowning safety drills, checked first aid and rescue technique execution, and held drills for paramedics and the disabled, which resulted in a guarantee of safety.

The team also analyzed the residue on the beach; all readings tested negative. They also checked water quality as well as the environmental management and education with no issues found.

The same procedure that took place in the Marina Riviera Nayarit took place in Nuevo Vallarta; it’s important to point out that because the former is the first of its kind, it’s currently setting the standards for the regulation of future Blue Flag marinas in Mexico.

“We keep setting the standards for other marinas,” commented Rafael Alcántara, Harbor Master for the Marina Riviera Nayarit. “We have created and will continue to create more proposals in order for the Blue Flag certification for marinas in Mexico to run more smoothly. There is quite a bit of paperwork that has to be done to adapt it from a beach to a marina.”

The inspection was attended by the Nayarit state authorities including the Secretary of the Environment (Semanay by its acronym in English, the Secretary of Tourism (Sectur), and the Secretary of Health, the Civil Defense Department and the Banderas Bay Trust (FIBBA, by its acronym in Spanish).