Montague Island (Baja California)

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The Isla Montague is an island off the mouth of the Colorado River into the Gulf of Baja California in the Mexican municipality of Mexicali.

The north-south direction up to 32 km long island is part of the delta of the Colorado. There prevails with up to 10 m one of the highest Tidenhube the world, so that the island completely disappears at high tide. Your maximum expansion at low tide is 132.8 km ². Although the islands in the delta have changed significantly over time, Montague can already be seen on a map from 1873.

East of Montague, are the smaller islands Gore and Pelícano.

Ecology

The climate in the region is extremely hot and arid, the average annual rainfall is 60 mm. The Isla Montague is due to the conditions in the Delta greatly changed their shape as their ecology. The only water that reaches the delta are agricultural effluents.

Seven species of water birds breed on Isla Montague. The island is one of two known breeding areas of Schmuckseeschwalbe (Sterna elegans ) in Mexico. In the course of two years, a large number of nests lost by flooding, but few by predators. The breeding birds on Isla Montague reacted strongly to El Niño, with white belly boobies were replaced by blue-footed boobies, and the number of many terns like the skimmers ( Rynchops ) increased.

Isla Montague is one of the few places where the endangered Colorado delta clam ( Mulinia coloradoensis ) can be found. This species was once abundant in the mouth of the Colorado River, now it exists only in a few isolated places. This decline is explained by the increasing salinity of the water by the Colorado River.

Mineral resources

1981 discovered the Mexican state oil company PEMEX natural gas in the area. This led to a scramble for oil and gas concessions in the nearby town of Yuma ( Arizona). The area has also been studied for their usefulness for a tidal power station.