GREAT SALT LAKE, Utah, Dec. 7, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — “Slicks” of brine shrimp are visible on the Great Salt Lake and the harvesting season is already half over, according to a Great Salt Lake State Park and Marina post on Facebook.
“Every year we have harvesters come to the lake to collect ‘slicks’ of brine shrimp cysts,” the post says. “The cold temperatures of fall/winter cause brine shrimp to produce dormant cysts as a form of ‘cryptobiosis.'”
The post explains that when conditions are good, the cysts come together and form what looks like an oil slick in the water. Look closely, though, and you can see thousands of floating eggs.
They provide an essential food source for millions of birds that breed or stopover at the Great Salt Lake during migration.
After collection, the brine shrimp cysts are cleaned, processed, stored and later hatched into live young to feed a variety of commercially reared fish and prawns.
When the weather turns warmer and conditions improve, the cysts hatch as nauplii (the first larval stage, with an unsegmented body and a single eye) and continue their life cycle.
To see more photos, click here for the Great Salt Lake State Park and Marina on Facebook. You can also find more information on the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program website.
