Second day at the Sea of Cortez, why is this place special?

Our stay in Mexico takes place not just in any body of water, we are at the northern Sea of Cortez, also known by the name of Gulf of California, and this sea is a very special place for studying marine biology.
It has even been given the title of "The Aquarium of the World" by Jacques Cousteau and for good reason, there are hundreds of species of marine life here, many of them endemic meaning they can only be found in this habitat, including the endangered Vaquita which is only found in the northern part of the sea close to where we are at in Puerto Penasco.

Today we had the pleasure of having a lecture on the physical properties that make this body of water one of the most biologically diverse waters on all of earth, the educational instructor of CEDO, Paloma, let us know all the history of this area. 

We learned that this ocean is geologically considered to be relatively young, only having formed between 10 to 6 million years ago. And that one of the main tributaries to this ocean is the Colorado River, which deposits a lot of sediment especially at the northern area, this sediment contributes in two major ways, it makes it so that the shelf here is very shallow, only going down at about 900ft of depth, compared to the southern reaches of the sea that can go miles in depth to the ocean bottom. This causes the tidal retreat here to be very large, much more of the land can be exposed as the tide gradually recedes and more intertidal organisms and species can be present due to abundant space.

This sediment is also very nutrient rich, so when it occasionally gets moved around and floats closer to the surface, such as during an upwelling event, these nutrients can be used by many different marine species, contributing to biological productivity. 

These and many other reasons such as the climate control that water can have on temperature and how these intertidal organisms harness it, are the primary reasons as to why this sea is so diverse, and a great place to get to know the life of the ocean. Knowing these facts on oceanography of the gulf explains why we are able to see many of the amazing organisms we have seen so far on tide pools such as the ones pictured below.

- Gabriel Carcereri

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