"The Shrinking Salton Sea"

Over the last five years, the Salton Sea's shoreline has been steadily receding into the desert, creating a "bathtub ring" of exposed lake bed around the 360-square-mile body of murky water that straddles Imperial and Riverside counties.

Once, it was one of the most productive fisheries and wildlife habitats in the state, but the shrinking Salton Sea has hit hard times.

Above, Cormorants and other birds breed on Mullet Island in the Salton Sea.

(Arkasha Stevenson, Los Angeles Times / November 14, 2011)