The Dying Sea

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The Salton Sea was once a thriving resort area with nightclubs and water skiing.  Now the 35-mile-long body of water is contaminated with pesticide and fertilizer from farmland runoff in the Imperial Valley.  Additionally the sea is polluted with  raw sewage from a river that runs north from Mexico.

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The water of the Salton Sea is 20 percent saltier than the ocean.  Biologists don't know exactly what the cause of an avian botulism epidemic was that killed an estimated 60,000 tilapia fish in the summer of 1997.

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The overall destruction of the habitat was evident on almost every shore line.

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An unfortunate side effect of the avian botulism epidemic in the fish population is the food chain of the sea and the large part the fish play in it.  The double crested cormorant's staple food is the tilapia fish, thus introducing themselves to the botulism by ingesting the diseased fish.

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Once the botulism established itself in the bird population it spread through a nesting colony on Mullet Island killing an estimated 1,700 birds.  Including these two baby chicks still laying in their nest next to an un-hatched egg.

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Federal biologist Ken Strum examines the remains of cormorant nest on Mullet Island.  

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Most of the birds died as a result of weakness associated with the botulism. The weight of the birds head became too great for them to hold up, thus suffocating the birds on the edge of their nests. 

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