Current brine shrimp egg harvesting practices could lead to economic and environmental concerns

Brine shrimp are the half-inch-long crustacean colloquially known as sea monkeys and are one of the few organisms that can survive in Utah's Great Salt Lake (GSL). More than a low-maintenance pet, brine shrimp produce eggs, or cysts, that can be dormant, shipped around the world, hatched, and used as nutritious fish food in aquaculture. That seafood is then likely to end up at your local grocery store or favorite restaurant. Each year the GSL supplies up to 45 percent of the world's brine shrimp cyst needs and to collect them, harvesters skim the floating cysts off the top of the lake while sinking cysts remain.

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