We went to the Salton Sea area the other day. It's about an hour from here. It was created by an ecological disaster in 1906 when the region flooded. This was partly caused by the diversion of the Colorado River. Jim's doing research on this as Huxley wrote a novel called "After Many a Summer" which deals with this era. It will be the focus of his paper he's presenting at the Huxley conference this summer in Passedena.
From the beginning large concentrations of waterfowl, pelicans, and other birds were sighted in the area. It is now home to millions of fish mainly tilapia and croakers.
The increasing salinity and problems with algae have caused various bird and fish die offs. In August 1998 7.6 million tilapia and croakers die from oxygen being depleted due to algae. Last year when we were here a million or so tilapia died off and of course created quite a stench in the area for months (not the PS area but the Salton Sea area) Yet scientific studies show the Sea may have the most productive fishery in the world.
There is currently a 7.1 billion dollar plan to restore the sea over the next 50 years; however, current budget problems have put this on hold. It appears if something isn't done to stop the salinity there will be continued die offs and the sea will eventually dry up and cause massive dust problems.
It was really like being at the seaside with a soft salt breeze blowing and no noxious smells the day we were there. Property is very cheap and they are selling new homes (4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, granite countertops, all appliances included, double garage) with sea and mountain views for $149,000 (0% down). We went through one and I don't see how they can build them for this amount of money.
As you can imagine the community of Salton Sea and another adjacent community called Desert Shores attracts a real mix of people. I have lots of photos and will post them if I ever get my computer fixed.
One of the first people we met was a volunteer at a makeshift Chamber of Commerce in Salton City. She was a New Yorker and worked with the firefighters at Ground Zero for 38 days and then decided to pack up her kids and move to the middle of nowhere and where there were no tall buildings. This is where she ended up.
We saw loads of beautiful white pelicans and other sea birds...quite amazing really. The water was cold but it warms up later in the year and it is safe for swimming and water skiing etc. You need to shower off afterward because of the smell. A rather fascinating place. Apparently the mazazine called "American Road" which specializes in searching out unusual places for people to visit in the US is featuring the Salton Sea area in its Feb. edition.
