Sea of Cortez Resurvey

In 1940 John Steinbeck and “Doc” Ricketts and three shipmates set out in a trawler from Monterey for 6 weeks to catalog the intertidal biodiversity of the shoreline of the Sea of Cortez. They meticulously cataloged the animals they collected and their cultural and philosophical observations of the people and landscapes they encountered. The book that resulted from this expedition presents a valuable opportunity for assessing changes in biodiversity, development, and cultural evolution over the intervening 80+ years. Many of the locations they surveyed have since been developed, and the combined effects of development, harvesting, and climate change has changed or eliminated much of the biodiversity they catalogued. Despite this, no systematic resurvey of their expedition has taken place. We are in the early stages of planning a Sea of Cortez resurvey project to quantitatively assess changes in biodiversity, and reflect on the cultural and physical evolution of the landscapes they encountered.