For more than a century, the vast inland lake was a prime stopping place for migratory birds on the long journey from the Arctic, Canada and Alaska to Baja, Mexico and back again. At the national refuge this month, hundreds of snow geese are wintered down in nutritious ryegrass and wheat that staff have grown for them. The wildlife refuge has been feeding birds hunted nearly to extinction and crowded out by development elsewhere since They devour it. But the refuge is only 2, acres.
There were supposed to be thousands of acres of marsh and pond projects ready by the time the water imports stopped in January Recognizing the devastating toll that cutting off the water could cause, a judge gave all the parties 15 years to act. Those plans, like the lake, have contracted over time. But agreements between the powerful Imperial Irrigation District and state agencies have still not been finalized. A state staffer said IID needed to allow access across its land.
The debate mirrors the logjam between the two sides over all the projects. The district wants to persuade state officials to agree to easements for access across IID lands that will guarantee the district will assume no liability for endangered species that might find their way onto adjoining farmland or irrigation land.
Crowfoot said he plans to talk with IID officials and key state officials very soon. Until his appointment by Newsom, he headed the Water Foundation, and pushed hard to resolve the differences between all sides regarding the Salton Sea. His organization even offered to pay for professional mediators to break the impasse. Bradley and some others have a tougher time seeing a bright future. They've seen too many agreements break down, too many delays for no good reason.
On a recent winter afternoon, he stopped by the Red Hill project site, where a large sign declared that a habitat restoration project is coming. If anything, he takes hope from the lake itself.
Fish diversity in the sea has seen several dramatic shifts. The sea came into existence when the Colorado River was accidentally diverted into the valley in If we go back another years there existed a much larger freshwater lake in the valley called Lake Cahuilla with high populations of bonytail, striped mullet, and razorback sucker which supplied local peoples with food.
Even further into the historical record, when sea levels were higher and before silt created a division, the valley was part of the Gulf of California. Today, the sea continues to change.
The Salton Sea once thrived with stocked populations of Corvina and other popular saltwater species. Today, the sea only supports Mozambique Tilapia and the native Desert Pupfish. High algae blooms, caused by agricultural runoff, and increased salinity have eliminated nearly all of the introduced species in this once diverse fishery.
High populations of Mozambique Tilapia are still found and caught. It is common to see fishermen at the north end of the lake filling their coolers with tilapia for resale in Los Angeles. Southern California fishermen already have proved that they will move like the hordes of Genghis Khan the moment they get wind of fish.
Under such fishing pressure as this, it is small wonder that the Department of Fish and Game has gambled on the Salton Sea. The fact that race-track money has been used to develop the predicted fishing boom doesn't mean that the members of the Department of Fish and Game have been playing the horses.
They have a better deal than that; a sure thing, in fact. In California some of the tax money from horse racing goes to the Department of Fish and Game for "capital improvements. Boyd W. Walker of UCLA was appointed director of the program, and the Salton Sea Project advisory committee, composed of biologists of the Department of Fish and Game, was appointed to assist in the planning. It was a scientific gamble. If the biological studies provided the fish for sport fishing, it would constitute capital improvement.
If they failed, the conservation board could be accused of using the money for basic research instead of capital improvement. The orangemouth corvina Cynoscion xanthulus , the payoff fish, has long been considered a prime game fish among anglers visiting the Gulf of California, whence it was brought to the Salton Sea.
A relative of the California white sea bass, it is silvery in color and is an excellent eating fish. Walker said. It doesn't jump but it makes good runs and it is fast. It's a beautiful fish, and some man is going to have the thrill of making the first big catch. The biologists already have received reports of some corvina being caught by fishermen.
Richard Easton of Westmorland, Calif. One seven-pounder was caught on a bass plug. But a seven-pounder is small compared to some that are in the Sea. Corvina attain a weight of 30 pounds, and their early growth is phenomenal. Some corvina seined from the Sea by the scientists, who could tell their age by studying the scales, show that they weigh about three pounds when one year old, around six pounds at 2 years, and when 3 years old they run 12 to 16 pounds.
One specimen was a 3-year-old corvina weighing almost 17 pounds. From the viewpoint of sport fishermen, the Salton Sea has been an aggravation for more than a quarter of a century. There it has been—an enticing body of blue water with desert on both sides of it but with no fish worth catching.
To the south lies Imperial Valley, once a howling desert but now, thanks to irrigation from the Colorado River, a fabulous producer of winter vegetables.
To the north lies the Coachella Valley, where date palms, grapes and other crops are also nurtured by Colorado River water. To many, especially the Department of Fish and Game, the large, sparkling but fishless expanse of blue water all seemed wrong. As a matter of fact, the very existence of the Sea was due to a mistake. Early in this century water already was being taken from the Colorado River to irrigate desert lands.
In , the floodgates were clogged with silt and stuck. To get their water, the farmers cut an opening in the river bank, intending to close it up again before the floods came. But a big and early flood swept down the river, tore through the opening, and they could not get it closed again. Their irrigation ditch became a mile wide, and the Colorado flowed northwest into the great hole in the desert for two years. The Southern Pacific railroad, whose tracks had been inundated, finally got it stopped, but the result was the Salton Sea.
Efforts of the Department of Fish and Game to get some sort of sport fish established there began in when striped bass were transplanted from the San Joaquin River. That was the last ever seen of them. In more striped bass were brought from San Francisco Bay. That was the last seen of them. Pileworms and saltwater mudsuckers brought in from San Diego Bay thrived in the Sea, but desirable fish had no such luck. In , 15, silver salmon fingerlings were planted, but none were ever seen again.
The same applied to anchovies and anchovetas brought from Mexico. By biologists of the Department of Fish and Game had decided that such selective introductions were taking too long, so they switched to what they call the "shotgun" type of planting: taking every desirable species they could get out of the Gulf of California and dumping them into the Salton Sea.
Under this program the first orangemouth corvina and the first gulf croakers were transplanted in Other species transplanted by the shotgun method included pompano, halibut, white and silver perch, bonefish, smelt, pez del rey, mojarra, grunion, sardine and totuava. Few of them were ever seen again. In sargo were tried. Sometimes called china croaker or blue bass, they are also from the Gulf of California.
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