In 1905, as farmers began channeling water west from the Colorado River, a dike overflowed. The leak wasn't stopped until 1907. The Salton Sea had begun its career as an agricultural sump. The problem, he said, isn't that the Salton is a dead sea but that it fosters so much life, from algae to fish to birds. Tilapia, imported African perch, thrive in the salty water.
Fishermen also catch corvina and sargo.
On a recent visit, Tilapia carcasses lay thick along the shoreline. Flocks of shorebirds picked their way across beaches made crunchy by fish bones and barnacles. Herons don't mind the smell of rot, and neither do a growing number of fishermen who reel in the live fish before they suffocate. She is the widow of Sonny Bono, who died in a skiing accident last January. He, too, was a congressional champion of the sea.