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beneath the fierce sun, most likely on the way to the southern end of the Sea, where a huge wetland restoration project is under way. The Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge is the latest government-funded remedy to the Sea's many problems. It is named after the man made famous on TV's Sonny and Cher Show, which aired in the 1970s, who later became a representative to Congress for his district of Palm Springs. Sonny died a few years back in a freak skiing accident, but his legacy of saving the Salton Sea carries on. A special congressional task force is now tackling the difficult undertaking of solving the Sea's myriad problems, a daunting task indeed. On the one hand, the Sea is suffering from having too much of a good thing, namely, fish. A few decades back, two species of fish appeared in the Sea and proliferated madly. One, tilapia, is origina lly from Africa and Israel and most likely entered the Sea through the agricultural canals that feed it. The other, orange·mouth corvina from the Sea of Cortez, was introduced for sport fishing. Both are incredibly hardy-and need to be to withstand the water's high salinity, which runs about a third higher than that of the ocean. But even these great survivors haven't got much longer unless conditions improve. If the water's salin ity continues to rise, there will be a lot more dead fish along the shore. During the summer, because the water, as it heats up in the 100-degree-plus temperatures, becomes depleted of oxygen, the fish die off in huge numbers. The water condition worsens from thick algae blooms which feed on nutrient·rich agricultural runoff. The end result is this: on certain days during the summer, upwards of 100,000 fish can perish in a single afternoon. The die-offs are inevitably followed by similar and particularly devastating epidemics in the wildfowl population, such as the brown pelican, currently on the endangered list. A single bad case of avian botulism ~ould effectively destroy the entire species of this rare bird. So what does all this mean for the future of the Sea? Many scientists and environmentalists have put their heads together to try and come up with potential solutions, but all would have price tags in the bi llions of dollars. One involves setting up a number of desalination plants along the shore to combat the build·up of salt. Another plan calls for the construction a dual pipeline that would carry water both to and from the Sea of Cortez, over 100 miles away. Both are waterworks of a scale that this country has yet to see, and all for a body of water that very few people visit and practically no one has ever heard of. Yet if the Sea is left to its own devices, it will soon become too saline to support life, and the birds would lose one more wetland habitat in a part of the world where most of them have already disappeared. Wouldn't the best solution, from an environmental perspective, be to restore the Colorado to its former glory- dismantle the dams, the levees, and the irrigation canals, and allow the river to flow again, unfettered, through its delta to the ocean-and leave the Salton Sea to its own devices? But in today's world, where every acre-foot of the over-allocated Colorado's water is fought over, where millions of people depend on its water and its energy·producing power plants, this idea is a pipe dream at best. On this particular day, I intend to take a sea kayak out into the Sea for a closer look its diverse wildlife, and to give myself some time to ponder its dismal future. I unload the boat from atop my car and am soon gliding out across the shimmering surface. The water seems viscous under my paddles, and smells like dirty dishwater. It is so shallow that my oars occasionally scrape bottom hundreds of yards from the shore. But the solitude, the tranquillity, and the amount of birds are utterly astounding. I am no longer in the world of man; I am part of their world now. I paddle past old docks, forgotten and rotting, where herons perch while keeping a wary eye on my bright yellow craft. Three old telephone poles sit offshore, defunct and wireless. I glide past skeletal trees, their barren branches host to large nests made of woven sticks and mud. All in all, I relish the quiet and the overwhelming lack of other humans, knowing that I am a mere hour's drive from one of the world's largest population centers. After a few hours out on the water, I turn around and head back for the car. A group of white pelicans glides past me, their wingtips skimming mere inches above the sea's glassy surface. These beautiful birds have found what little solace remains here at the Salton Sea. What will happen if the sea becomes too foul to support them? Where will they go? As I load the kayak back on top of my car, I can't help but worry about the future of these wild animals. As the sun sets over the distant mountains across the water and lights up the surface with brilliant red-orange hues, I ponder on this living example of all the mistakes we've made in tampering with Mother Nature. The Sea's surface is like a looking glass, and in it we see a grim reflection of ourselves . • HOW TO VISIT THE SALTON SEA THE SALTON SEA LIES NEAR INTERSTATE 10 ABOUT ONE HOUR'S DRIVE SOUTHEAST OF PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA. IF YOU FIND YOURSELF DRIVING BETWEEN ARIZONA AND THE GOLDEN STATE, STOP OFF FOR A GLIMPSE OF THIS BIZARRE DESERT HABITAT. TAKE HIGHWAY 111 SOUTH AND THE SEA WILL BECOME VISIBLE WITHIN TEN MINUTES. AT NORTH SHORE, STOP OFF FOR A STROLL ALONG THE BEACHES, AND POKE AROUND THE ABANDONED YACHT CLUB. DRIVE TO THE SOUTHERN END OF THE SEA AND VISIT THE SONNY BONO NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, WHERE YOU WILL SEE A VAST WETLANDS RESTORATION PROJECT UNDERWAY, AND CATCH A GLIMPSE OF THE MYRIAD BIRDS THAT FLOCK TO THIS UNNATURAL OASIS. WHAT YOU CAN DO THE SALTON SEA RESTORATION PROJECT (WWW.LC.USBR.GOV/SALTNSENSSREST.HTML) IS A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE SALTON SEA AUTHORITY AND THE US BUREAU OF RECLAMATION, AND HAS BEEN COMMISSIONED BY CONGRESS TO FIND SOLUTIONS TO THE SEA'S PROBLEMS. A GRASS-ROOTS ORGANIZATION, SAVE OUR SEA (WWW.sOSII.COM). HAS BECOME INVOLVED AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL. CONTACT EITHER FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO HELP. 39