Gone -- fishin’

The annual Labor Day fishing tournament at the Salton Sea did not go as planned. Anglers showed up, but the fish didn’t. No one caught anything, so anglers drew lots for three trophies.

“We’ve gone through these spells where there’s no fish and then they come back,” says Salton Sea Beach Marina manager Mickey Hall, “so we’re hoping that’s the case again.”

Don’t count on it, warns Jack Crayon, a California Department of Fish and Game biologist. His surveys of the Salton Sea indicate fish have all but vanished from the giant saline lake, in the desert east of San Diego.

This summer, Crayon found 90% less tilapia -- once the most abundant species in the lake -- than five years ago. The three most coveted game fish -- corvina, sargo and croaker -- disappeared; Crayon hasn’t netted any in two years.

“We’ve seen fish kills for a long time at the sea, they’re not a new phenomenon,” Crayon says. “What seems to be new is that the fish aren’t reproducing.”

The Salton Sea became one of the West’s preeminent fisheries after the Colorado River jumped its banks a century ago and formed the vast inland lake. Authorities planted salmon, striped bass and several dozen marine species decades ago, but salt killed most of them. Croaker, sargo and corvina from the Gulf of California flourished as did tilapia from agricultural canals. The sea once brimmed with so many fish that millions of bony carcasses washed ashore during episodic die-offs and anglers say dense schools halted boat propellers.

As fish disappear, fewer birds visit the lake. The Salton Sea area attracts more than 400 bird species -- half of all species nationwide -- along the Pacific Flyway. The sea supports nearly all the nation’s white pelicans and eared grebes as well as four of every 10 Yuma clapper rails, a threatened species.

Ray Garnett, 75, fished the sea for more than 40 years and guided anglers on his 24-foot pontoon boat. “It used to be the best fishing in the world,” he says. “It would be nothing to go out there and catch 100 fish a day.” He quit fishing in May after catching a few meager specimens of “skin and bones.”

The fishery collapse baffles scientists because, by some indicators, environmental conditions have improved. Pollutants such as selenium, DDT and its byproducts haven’t increased in years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and new regulations cut phosphate-laden runoff from farms by 30%, says Doug Wylie, a senior engineer for the state Regional Water Quality Control Board.

So what’s killing the fish?

While scientists are uncertain, they suspect salt loads short-circuit fish reproduction. Mineral rich wastewater from farms flows into the 360-square-mile sea but can’t flow out, and evaporation increases salt buildup.

Salinity levels increased nearly one-third in the last 20 years and since 1999 the salt content has risen from 44 parts per thousand to 46 to 47 parts per thousand, says Doug Barnum, science coordinator for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Adult tilapia can withstand twice as much salt in the sea today, and the other three sport fish species tolerate salt levels of 50 to 60 parts per thousand. But scientists say juvenile fish and embryos are more vulnerable.

“We know the sea is on a trajectory for disaster,” Crayon says. “For those of us trying to restore the sea, this really doesn’t change our goals. The only thing this might do is alter our perception of what nature’s timetable is.”

One solution calls for dividing the Salton Sea in two with a dike -- a mildly saline northern lake to host wildlife and a super-saline southern salt pond. But the project could cost billions of dollars and faces political as well as engineering obstacles.

The solution will come too late for Garnett. He’s selling his house and moving east to find a new lake. Says Garnett: “I can’t fish here anymore. So I’m going somewhere to where I can fish.”