The Surreal World Of California's Salton Sea - From Accident To Glamor To Accelerating Decay
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Before the sea was starved of water in recent decades, it was another world rife with tourism and recreation. The government attempted to introduce freshwater fish for recreational purposes in the 1920s, failing repeatedly because of the lake’s high salinity until they brought in salt-tolerant fish such as the corvina from the Gulf of California. A group of boating enthusiasts hosted races at the sea starting in the late 1920s, setting new world records as they took advantage of the low barometric pressure and the density of the sea due to its high salt content, which made it ideal for high-speed racing. In the 1960s, the Salton Sea rivaled Yosemite as a tourist destination, attracting the likes of Frank Sinatra and former president Dwight Eisenhower. The sea’s proximity to Palm Springs and San Diego, a variety of conditions that made it perfect for boating and the warm winter climate of the Southern California desert made it an attractive destination. The sea was host to resorts, 12 functioning marinas and multiple constructed key developments for vacation homes.
However, the sea’s brief interlude of luxury and abundance during the second half of the 20th century was built on a dubious foundation. From the get-go, the Salton Sea was doomed. As it drained into the soil and experienced a reduction in water sources, it continued to heighten in salinity, both from absorbing the natural sediments of the ancient lakebed and from collecting industrial and agricultural runoff as it evaporated in the hot desert sun. Algal blooms began occurring that robbed the water of its oxygen, leading to further ecological instability. Today, the Salton Sea is 25% saltier than the ocean, meaning the only fish that can survive in it are the local desert pupfish and the high-salt tolerant tilapia, introduced by accident from a tropical fish farm. By the 1980s, the ecological instability of the sea had reached a point where fish and birds dramatically perished at once in massive die-off events, with tens of thousands of their bodies accumulating on shores each time it happened. The property value of the sea began to fall, and soon, the resorts and marinas were abandoned.
For 30 years, Sandra Zelasko has made the journey to the Salton Sea for wildlife photography. In 1999, she observed the most dramatic of these die-off events, where it is estimated that 7.6 million tilapia died during a single day. She recounted her experience: “It was the worst smelling mess that you could ever imagine. Those die-offs don’t happen anymore because there’s just not that many fish out there.”
Considering the thousands of birds that must have died, the overwhelming smell of death and the loss of so many creatures, it would be easy to assume that Zelasko would feel depressed coming back. After all, Zelasko has been surrounded by wildlife at the sea for decades. “It’s less interesting for me because there’s less birds to photograph,” she said. “But on the other hand, all of my programs now are conservation-based. It’s totally changed for me. So I’m not just about photographing birds. I’m photographing conservation stories.”
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https://www.dailycal.org/2021/05/09/the-salton-sea-the-worst-lake-youve-never-heard-of/
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