Montague Island, known in Spanish as Isla Montague, is an island at the mouth of the Colorado River in the

municipality of Mexicali Mexicali Municipality is a municipality ( es, link=no, municipio) in the Mexican state of Baja California. Its municipal seat ( es, link=no, cabecera municipal) is located in the city of Mexicali. As of 2020, the municipality had a total populati ...

, Baja California, Mexico, and is part of the Colorado River Delta and part of a broader region called the Salton Trough. It is about in length along its longest axis.The Delta of the Colorado River
David L. Alles (ed.), Western Washington University, August 6, 2006. The Colorado River Delta region experiences some of the highest tidal ranges in the world, up to , and at the highest tides, Montague Island is completely inundated. Although the islands in the delta have changed much over time, a map of the region shows Montague Island in 1873. The island is uninhabited, as the climate is very hot, arid and the area occasionally floods. The nearest inhabited town is

El Golfo de Santa Clara EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American ...

Ecology

The climate in the region of the Island is extremely hot and arid, with average annual rainfall of 2.4 in (60 mm). Montague Island, as part of the Colorado river delta, has had its ecology radically altered by diversion and use of water upstream in the river. The only water reaching the delta, with the exception of occasional floods, is agricultural wastewater. At least seven species of water birds are known to breed on Montague Island. The island is one of two known active breeding colonies of elegant tern in Mexico. During two years, a large number of nests were destroyed by tidal flooding, but there were only low levels of nests lost to predation. The birds nesting on Montague Island have reacted strongly to El Niño, with brown boobies being replaced by

blue-footed boobies The blue-footed booby (''Sula nebouxii'') is a marine bird native to subtropical and tropical regions of the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is one of six species of the genus '' Sula'' – known as boobies. It is easily recognizable by its distincti ...

, and an increase in nesting of least, elegant, and royal terns, as well as

black skimmer The black skimmer (''Rynchops niger'') is a tern-like seabird, one of three similar birds species in the skimmer genus ''Rynchops'' in the gull family Laridae. It breeds in North and South America. Northern populations winter in the warmer water ...

s. Montague Island is one of the few locations where ''

Mulinia coloradoensis ''Mulinia coloradoensis'' is the junior synonym of ''Mulinia modesta'', a species of clam endemic to the northern and central Gulf of California. The clam is known to live in both brackish and fully marine habitats. It is a shallow-water filter ...

'', an endangered species of clam, is found. This species was once extremely abundant near the mouth of the Colorado river, but now only exists in a few isolated places. The decline of this clam is explained by the increase in salinity of the water due to diversion of and use of water from the Colorado river.

Energy resources

In 1981,

Pemex Pemex (a portmanteau of Petróleos Mexicanos, which translates to ''Mexican Petroleum'' in English; ) is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company managed and operated by the Mexican government. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization and expr ...

discovered natural gas near the island, prompting a scramble for oil and gas leases in the nearby city of Yuma, Arizona."Find prompts scramble", ''The Courier'', Vol. 90, No. 152, Aug 4, 1981.
/ref> The area has also been studied for the potential use of tidal power.

References

{{Coord, 31, 44, 18, N, 114, 44, 47, W, source:INEGI_scale:500000, display=title Islands of Mexicali Municipality Islands of the Gulf of California Islands of the Colorado River Lower Colorado River Valley Nature reserves in Mexico Protected areas of Baja California San Luis Río Colorado Municipality, Sonora Steamboat transport on the Colorado River