Special Report

Rocky Point collision

Even as the condo craze reaches fever pitch in Puerto Peñasco, the culture of indigenous Cucapá is fading, Sonoran fishermen and shrimpers face many days without any catch and environmentalists are decrying the loss of marine life blamed on a lack of Colorado River water into Mexico...

Thirsty Rocky Point's unsalted future
Residents know their aquifer is drying up. But developers say they have a magic bullet: desalination...

Progress & Pavement
If you follow a sandy street from this village where the Colorado River meets the Sea of Cortez, fresh asphalt suddenly pops out of nowhere...

Cutting off a lifeline
"What will we leave for our children? We will not be like Santa Anna. He gave the land; we will not give the water!" - Manuel Aguilar, president of the Mexicali Valley Farmers Union...

Accidental oasis

On Ciénega de Santa Clara, Son. - Ramsés Rodríguez Ramírez paddles slowly across these tranquil waters. Eyes fixed on a flock of white pelicans, he holds his breath, knowing the slightest noise will scare them away...

Shrimpers' way of life ending
Note to Tucsonans: Got shrimp? If so, don't take the sweet-tasting wild variety for granted. As wild seafood becomes scarce, consumers face a preponderance of farm-raised shrimp and fish...

Buying land? Don't be seduced by the sea
Here at what some call "Arizona's Beach," a new coastal highway is expected to increase Arizona tourism and instigate California tourism...

A tiny porpoise struggles to survive
The vaquita marina, the world's smallest porpoise, is almost extinct. In photos, it has a beaklike mouth and dark rings around its lips and eyes...

Betting on a pipeline
PUERTO LIBERTAD, Son. - You probably haven't heard of this tranquil fishing town on the Sea of Cortez. But if El Paso Corp. and Rockingham Investment Group have their way, this isolated town could dwarf everything else on Sonora's Gulf Coast...

A Tribe Without A River

Doña Inocencia Saínz González remembers what life was like when the river ran free. That was before a sequence of dams changed the Colorado River, and the lives of her people, forever...

Migrant Flotilla
"What do they want? For us to cross illegally into the U.S.?" asks Ciry Aldama, tying her long brown hair into a ponytail. "They don't let us fish, and there are no other alternatives..."

Plant Offline; Wildlife Thrives
With a construction cost of $250 million and an operating budget of $30 million a year, it's a wonder we don't use the Yuma Desalination Plant.