Photo: The Salt Lake Tribune.
Harvest watercraft encircle brine shrimp in Great Salt Lake using containment booms in preparation for harvesting.
Although today’s story about brine shrimp feeding the world is interesting in itself, the thing that stands out to me is thinking of Uzbek scientists. Uzbekistan feels so foreign to me, it’s like talking about scientists from the far side of the moon. That’s how limited my world view is, alas.
Here’s what Leia Larsen and Levi Bridges have to say at the Salt Lake Tribune about scientists in Uzbekistan and elsewhere who are studying brine shrimp.
“As the rising sun casts golden rays over the Aral Sea, a group of Uzbek fishermen wearing sweatshirts and knit caps gathered on a chilly beach to discuss the day’s plan.
“For two days they had waited in vain for brine shrimp. A dead calm in the first cold days of winter replaced winds that usually blow large slicks of the tiny crustaceans to shore.
“Standing and smoking cigarettes beside ramshackle cabins covered in sheets of plastic to keep out the elements, the fishermen debated whose turn it was to check if any shrimp had drifted in. Two volunteers jumped on a rattling old truck and chugged off miles into the distance to scour the beach.
“When the winds blow just right, Aral Sea fishermen work up to 36 hours gathering brine shrimp eggs, also known as cysts. They often labor with headlamps through the darkness. Winter temperatures can dip as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
“ ‘Sometimes we get so sleepy you feel drunk,’ said Miyrbek Mirzamuratov, an Uzbek fisherman who has spent two winters gathering cysts on the Aral Sea.
“The Great Salt Lake remains the world’s largest source of brine shrimp cysts, exporting 40% of the global supply. The shrimp are a key food source used in aquaculture. Seafood is the main source of protein for billions of people across the planet, and aquaculture, fueled by brine shrimp, now produces roughly half of the world’s commercial seafood.
“But drought and decreasing water resources have put new pressure on brine shrimp in both Utah and Central Asia. In 2022, the Great Salt Lake’s shrimp populations almost collapsed due to record-low water elevation and spiking salinity.
“ ‘We’re all starting to realize just how much the lake touches us in many ways that we don’t appreciate,’ said Tim Hawkes, a former Utah state representative and current general counsel for the Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative. …
“Environmental challenges are also forcing scientists in Uzbekistan to devise ways to save their own brine shrimp – and help keep the world fed if Utah can’t ensure its own inland sea survives. Despite being too salty for fish, the Great Salt Lake’s aquaculture industry infuses Utah’s economy with up to $67 million each year, thanks to brine shrimp.
“That’s because their cysts, no bigger than a grain of sand, tolerate extreme conditions.
“ ‘You can boil them, you can freeze them, you can send them to outer space,’ Hawkes said. ‘And still, under the right conditions, if you put them in a little bit of salt water and give them some light, they’re going to hatch out.’
‘It makes brine shrimp cysts an ideal product to package and ship across the world, where they’re raised as an essential food source for the farmed seafood humans eat, particularly prawns and cocktail shrimp.
“Although farm-raised seafood has generated controversy due to its runoff pollution and impacts to wild fisheries, the United Nations issued a 2020 report identifying it as a critical player in global food security. It provides nutritious protein at low cost to rural and developing communities that have a hard time producing other farmed goods. …
“Globally, the average person ate 44.5 pounds of seafood in 2020, up from 31.5 pounds in the 1990s, according to the U.N. More than half of that came from farms.
“ ‘If we lost the Great Salt Lake,’ Hawkes said, ‘or we lost the ability to produce brine shrimp from the Great Salt Lake, it would have a significant impact on our ability to feed the world.’ …
‘Companies on the Great Salt Lake gather brine shrimp cysts from the water with boats and floating booms similar to those used to contain oil spills, but the work is still mostly done by hand in Uzbekistan and other Asian countries. …
‘Islambek Shumomurodov said he earns about $1.50 for every pound of Aral Sea cysts he gathers. The average annual household income in Uzbekistan is around $1,600. ‘Some people even buy new houses and cars from working here,’ Shumomurodov said.
“Although Uzbekistan’s brine shrimp production represents just a fraction of Utah’s output, the crustaceans created an economic opportunity after the Aral Sea’s traditional fishery shriveled.
“The Aral Sea, like the Great Salt Lake, has declined significantly from agricultural demand and human water consumption. Once a freshwater lake teeming with fish, the Uzbek portion of the Aral turned saline — a trend scientists don’t expect will change.
“Neighboring Kazakhstan spent millions damming off their portion of the North Aral Sea to keep the freshwater fishery viable. Brine shrimp, which likely hitchhiked to the region as cysts stuck to the feathers of visiting shorebirds, are the only creatures with commercial value able to survive in the shrinking southern Uzbek portion of the lake. …
“ ‘It’s just a matter of years now before [the Uzbek side of] the Aral Sea can no longer support brine shrimp,’ said Ablatdiyn Musaev, a biologist at the Uzbek Academy of Sciences.”
More at the Salt Lake Tribune, here. No firewall. Nice photos. There’s an audio version of the story at PRX’s The World.
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