The sea has a wildlife concentration second in the United States only to bird concentrations on the Gulf Coast of Texas. And if the sea gets too salty for fish to live in it, many of the more than 400 kinds of birds that use the sea would lose their food source. As California's coastal and Central Valley wetlands have been developed into marinas or filled to become farmland, the Salton Sea also has become a migratory stopover of last resort for hundreds of bird species that migrate along a major path called the Pacific Flyway. For birds that originate in the Arctic and Canada, this is one of the vital migratory links, said Dan Walsworth, California-Nevada supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If the fish go away, the birds don't have many other places to go, and we are very worried about that.
Salt is far from the sea's only problem.
Planned transfers of Colorado River water from the Imperial Valley to San Diego County will require water conservation projects in the valley that will reduce the flow of agricultural drainage water into the sea. Mexico also could easily decide to reclaim and recycle some of the steady flow of agricultural drainage and raw sewage that flows north along the New River and into the sea. Though laden with pesticides and other contaminants, water from these sources is far fresher than the sea itself and has helped slow the sea's salt buildup. Losing the sources will mean that more will have to be done in the near future to prevent the sea from reaching disastrous salt levels. There are still many other worries and uncertainties.