Salton Sea .......Life

They say the Salton Sea  is so salty that not much can live in it, but that does not seem to be true where we stopped to walk its' edge.  It is similar to many of the lakes that we saw in Tanzania last year in that it is a lake who's only outflow is due to evaporation in this usually very hot and parched land.  This leaves behind any minerals that may have washed in to the lake by the intermittent streams that only flow on the rare occasions that it rains in the surrounding mountains. These streams are dry for 99% of the year and flash flood after any rain, eroding the fragile landscape into the 280 feet below sea level basin that is Salton.   There are a couple of feeder rivers that flow on a more regular basis, but they are heavily polluted by the large populations a few miles south across the border in Mexico, and by the large area of irrigated agricultural land surrounding the north and south ends of the lake.

The surface area of this sea is over 500 square miles. The entire beach is built up of dead shells of mostly barnacles.  Millions of birds use this as a winter stop on their migrations, others call this home year round.  They feed on crustaceans, amphipods, fish (like tilapia) and other saline tolerant life.  The increasing salinity of the lake has been killing off many types of water life that can tolerate only so much salt and summer algal blooms.  August heat has caused massive die-offs of tilapia in the past and seems to be getting worse.  Sounds bad but the whole area is a great area for biodiversity and a unique area in so many ways.

    DZ.

Black necked stilt

Snowy Egret and Stilt

Snowy Egrets

Snowy Egret standing on beach of barnacle shells.

White Pelicans with the sun glittering on the water

White Pelican floats high on the salty water.

Black necked Stilt on a barnacle beach.

Tilapia skull.  (with many teeth)

Eroded landscape of the surrounding San Bernardino Mountains

Dead end Highway??

Tree in a dry water run.  

The VW is still going.