In 1971, the first marine protected area specifically for cetaceans was established at Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Scammon's Lagoon) in Baja California, Mexico. This sanctuary was created to protect the winter breeding grounds of the gray whale, which had been heavily exploited by commercial whaling. The area's protection marked a turning point in the conservation of marine mammals and inspired the creation of similar sanctuaries worldwide. The lagoon is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and a key destination for whale watching.

Scammon's Lagoon has been celebrated in Mexican and American nature poetry, with writers like John Steinbeck and Joseph Wood Krutch describing its beauty and the whales' annual migration. The sanctuary also appears in the works of ecocritical poets, who use it as a symbol of the fragile relationship between humans and marine life. Its establishment was noted in the environmental literature of the 1970s.