Wednesday November 13, 2024
PhysOrg —
Researchers Jeff Crooks and Stephany Garcia checked the minnow traps left at the murky mouth of the Tijuana River on a sunny October morning.
They didn’t expect any catches. They haven’t had any for months. The estuary at the southern edge of California, which borders Mexico, has been too polluted with untreated wastewater and sedimentation spilling over from Tijuana.
“We didn’t even take our fish finder that day,” Garcia said last week. “I remember the days when I could see the bottom of the riverbed and fish jumping out of the water. I even saw a sea lion one time. In recent years, the water just started to become more turbid.”
But then, something unexpected happened. They found an opaleye inside one of the traps.
That was an exciting moment for researchers at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve who have been monitoring the estuary’s health for years and are part of multi-agency efforts to restore the coastal wetland.