San Diego

The ecological research community is in shock following the death of five of its members. The researchers were on an expedition in the Gulf of California, off Mexico's Baja peninsula, when their boat was caught in a sudden wind storm.

Polis: an experienced ecologist who leaves a “bright legacy of accomplishments”. Credit: AP/UNIV CALIF, DAVIS

Among the dead are Gary Polis, chairman of the department of environmental science and policy at the University of California at Davis, and three Japanese researchers from Kyoto University: Takuya Abe, Masahiko Higashi and Shigeru Nakano, who is presumed dead although his body had not been recovered by last weekend. Michael Reese, a postgraduate ecologist at Davis, also drowned.

Four other members of the team — three graduate students and a postgraduate — were rescued after swimming for nearly four hours to islands.

Polis, a zoologist known for his research on scorpions, was also president of the American Society of Naturalists. Abe and Nakano were known for their work on biodiversity in the tropical forests of Borneo; Higashi was a specialist in food-web theory.

“The researchers who died left us a bright legacy of accomplishments that will make them remembered,” says Richard Atkinson, president of the University of California.

The Baja peninsula, which stretches for 950 sparsely populated kilometres down Mexico's northwest coast, is home to a wide range of plants and animals. But its desolate beauty masks many dangers, such as the sudden winds that can sweep off Baja's mountainous desert at up to 80 km per hour, whipping the water into huge waves.

The research team was operating about 500 km south of San Diego, near the remote fishing village of Bahia del Los Angeles on Baja's eastern shore, an area Polis knew well. They left the village in the morning in two motorized boats to do fieldwork on the Isla de Cabeza de Caballo, about 6 km offshore.

The open boats were returning to the village at midday when disaster struck. The boats became separated in the high seas, and one was swamped.

The researchers' project — examining spiders and scorpions — is funded by the US National Science Foundation and the Earthwatch Institute.

The Japanese researchers were building links between Kyoto and Davis, both specifically related to the project and more generally. They arrived in Davis the previous week and had spent a few days at the university before driving south into Mexico.