Written by / Chen Fenjie
This article is from the magazine Knowledge is Power
The city of La Paz is the capital of Southern California, located in the southeastern tip of boot-shaped Lower California, facing the Gulf of California, with a population of about 250,000, mainly supported by diving, fishing, and planting. Due to the desert climate and economic underdevelopment, the land of La Paz appears relatively barren, but the Gulf of California (the Gulf of California) is another colorful world – the Gulf of California attracts people from all over the world every year with its unique diving scenery.
La Paz is located at the southwestern tip of the Sea of Coles, to the right of the half-moon inner bay
The Sea of Cortez – the aquarium of the world
The Gulf of California is also known as the Sea of Cortez. In terms of species diversity and the diverse composition of ecosystems, the Sea of Cortez is a true marine paradise.
The formation of species diversity in the Gulf of California is inseparable from its diverse marine habitat, complex marine environment and geographical evolutionary history. The northern shore of the Gulf of California has a number of terrestrial freshwater injections, the seabed is volcanic due to plate movement, the climate is relatively warm all year round, the bay is full of islands and reefs, and the active tide mixture is the reason for the high species diversity in the area.
La Paz Bay – an unforgettable beneath the sea
La Paz Bay is the domain of the California Sea Lion, also known as the California Sea Lion. California sea lions, also known as loud men, are found from southeastern Alaska in the north of North America to the Galapagos Islands in South America.
Close contact with sea lions – left hand "bitten" by sea lions
Among the various underwater coral fish, the scaly pufferfish are particularly eye-catching. As a common local species, the scaly pufferfish covers many species, but the appearance is very similar - the diamond-shaped body shape plus the protruding upper and lower dorsal fins. Different from the general fish using twisting the body plus tail fin to promote the march, the scaly puffer more rely on the dorsal fin and fin fan superimposed pectoral fin forward, because the fin is wide plus the movement mode restriction, its movement speed is slower, but the controllability is good, can easily advance and retreat (general fish are more difficult to achieve retreat), or even hover somewhere, flexibility like hummingbirds.
Scaly pufferfish looking around for food inside coral reefs
Dried scaly pufferfish on the shore
La Paz – responsible and sustainable living
Diving in the beach waters of La Paz or the surrounding waters, you rarely see a trace of trash. La Paz is an advocate and implementer of environmentally sustainable concepts, and local diving activities are responsible diving practices. What is responsible diving? That is, to respect the rights of marine life and to ensure that the impact of human arrival on living creatures is minimized.
Drones photograph juvenile whale sharks coming to inshore for food
The behemoths of the sea swim past the divers
On land, La Paz has also practiced the concept of sustainable environmental protection with practical actions, advocating local consumers to recycle various types of daily necessities, reduce the use and dependence on plastic products, save the use and recycling of water resources, guide people to volunteer to participate in local nature conservation work, etc., and teach people to jointly protect the beautiful environment owned by La Paz.
A bird's-eye view of bath city, the rustic features of the desert are very different from our common reinforced forest cities
La Paz has also returned to nature in urban development. Unlike many cities with wide roads and high-rise buildings, many of La Paz's buildings are still low-earth yellow houses, some areas of the city are still pristine, and many infrastructure is still sufficient but not up-to-date. As we continue to promote urbanization and modernize our lives in China, the development model of La Paz allows us to see another possibility.