Everything is surprising about this sea. Saltier than the ocean, it breeds then suffocates tilapia. A mirage in the desert, it feeds flyway pelicans and cormorants. But it feels like a graveyard. Birds are dying in mortal rhythm with the fish. There is no tide and rivers flow north to a southern inlet. The sea sinks into view beneath waves of heat, shimmering in the Sonoran Desert, trapped between San Andreas Fault and Superstition Hills. The Salton Sea’s north shore starts after hedge rows of table grapes and fields of lettuce. The southern rim is 35 miles from Mexico.