Cozumel Reefs National Park: the decree, the rules and the closures.

A note on sources

Our research did not find a page from Mexico's National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) about Cozumel, or the text of the park's management programme. The facts below therefore come from Wikipedia, the local newspaper Por Esto, an academic article, a local visitor site and a diving magazine. Each is named, and where a point could not be confirmed, the page says so.

The park and who runs it

Wikipedia (secondary) records that the Arrecifes de Cozumel were decreed a National Marine Park on 19 July 1996, gives the area as about 120 square kilometres, and names SEMARNAT, Mexico's environment ministry, as the responsible authority. It also records the park as a Ramsar wetland site since 2 February 2005 and as part of the UNESCO Isla Cozumel Biosphere Reserve, in IUCN Category II.

A local news report from 2021, seen only in a search summary, describes CONANP, which sits under SEMARNAT, as the body that manages Mexico's federal protected areas day to day, with park staff patrolling year-round, sometimes with the Navy and the harbour master, against breaches of the park's management programme and other environmental offences. An academic article, also seen only in summary, says the area was recategorised from marine park to national park after Mexico's General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (LGEEPA) was amended in 2000. We could not confirm either point against CONANP's own material.

The park fee

Local sources describe a daily park access fee, collected by operators and often shown by a wristband, and one local tourism site also describes a conservation passport covering several visits. These are informal sources and we could not confirm them with the authority. No amounts are given here.

The park rules as reported

A local visitor site published a summary of the park rules on 3 April 2026. We could not check it against the management programme, so treat it as a secondary summary. It lists as prohibited:

• standing on or holding the reef;
• feeding any fish or other animal;
• fishing for, collecting or disturbing any marine organism, including coral, shells and starfish;
• using sunscreen or tanning oil that is not biodegradable;
• carrying spears, hooks, harpoons or explosives; and
• dumping solid waste, fuel, oil or other liquids.

Gloves and knives

The same site says carrying gloves or knives in the park is prohibited, though dive professionals may register to carry them. X-Ray Magazine also lists gloves and knives as prohibited. Two secondary sources agree on this, but we did not see the rule in an official text.

Rotating reef closures

Por Esto reported on 16 February 2026 that the park authority was closing three reef dive zones, Cedral Pared, Cedral and Francesa, for February and March 2026. The reasons given were warmer water, bleaching, sargassum and physical damage from constant diver and boat traffic. The park's representative described the closure as part of a rotating temporary-closure strategy that the park has used for several years across its 34 reefs.

The same report says the authority also manages the park through visitor limits, anchoring regulations and continuous monitoring. It did not give the details of those limits, and we found no official text setting them out. Because closures rotate, which reefs are open changes over time; check the current position with the park before you plan to dive a particular site.

What we could not confirm

The official glove, knife and group-size rules, the current fee and the text of the management programme all remain unconfirmed from the authority itself. A September 2026 press report of an advocacy group's claims about boat permit numbers in the park had no official response that we could find, so it is not described here.

Related reading

For how closures and fees at Cozumel compare with other parks, see how dive sites are protected. Reef conduct guidance from NOAA, Project AWARE and Green Fins is on protecting reefs and marine life.