Below, Enric Sala analyzes organisms collected from the Gulf of California. Above, Fishing boat near Tortuga Island in the gulf.

Enric Sala's proximity to the sea as a child was one of many influences on his interests in marine ecology and conservation biology. Born and raised in Girona, 32 kilometers (20 miles) from the coast of Catalonia, Spain, Sala spent many memorable summers with his family along the Mediterranean, even learning to snorkel before he could swim. But it was as an undergraduate at the University of Barcelona that Sala's love for the ocean transitioned into a career. Witnessing firsthand the dramatic effects of fishing on marine ecosystems left an indelible impression upon him. "When I started diving off the Medes Islands Marine Reserve on the Catalonian coast in the Mediterranean, I saw so many striking differences between the reserve and the fished areas nearby," Sala explained. "The differences were so dramatic. I discovered the effects of fishing on whole communities. I decided right then to study that particular marine reserve—and that's what led me to the research I'm doing now." Since joining Scripps faculty in July 2000, Sala's research has focused on the impacts of human activities on coastal environments, including the direct and indirect effects of fishing. He investigates the interactions among species in food webs and ecological conditions critical for coastal fishes to successfully reproduce and maintain viable populations. Sala has recently been appointed as deputy director at the new Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. (See interview with Enric Sala). Although he continues to study the coastal ecology of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the coral reefs off the coast of Belize in Central America, it is his research in the Mexican Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortés, that has drawn the attention and

We were curious. Our curiosity was not limited, but was as wide and horizonless as that of Darwin or Agassiz or Linnaeus or Pliny. We wanted to see everything our eyes would accommodate, to think what we could, and, out of our seeing and thinking, to build some kind of structure in modeled imitation of the observed reality. — John Steinbeck The Log from the Sea of Cortéz