Autographed copies of Adventures with the Mojave Phone Booth are now available!

Wagner imitates Salton Sea pelicans at dusk.

A beautiful scene . . .

. . . but you're very lucky this page isn't Scratch-n-Sniff, because every foot of Salton Sea coastline is covered with fish carcasses.
Instead of beach sand, there are billions upon billions of fish bones.
You can click the graphic for a close-up view of fish bones.

But why would you want to?

What's the problem? It seems salt content (seven times that of the ocean) coupled with chemical-laden irrigation runoff has made the Salton Sea hazardous to marine life. Nevertheless, area bozos keep stocking the water with fish, and the fish keep dying. A sign in Salton City depicts the parade of fish species they've been unsuccessful at introducing. I think the name of one of those doomed species pretty much tells the story for them all: Croaker. I can't imagine anyone being willing to eat anything out of a lake like this, but there were people fishing both from shore and boats. One moron was even jet-skiing! The heart is desperately stupid--who can comprehend it?