The brine shrimp harvest from Great Salt Lake has been halted by the State of Utah at just below 15 million pounds, only 70,000 pounds less than last year’s harvest, which was a record high.
The closure of the harvest was to protect the brine shrimp population. With good temperatures and plenty of algae for food, the adult brine shrimp produces live young and lays no eggs. This leads to fewer shrimp the next year.
How will cessation of the harvest affect aquarists?
Conjecture is that prices for brine shrimp eggs will stabilize or increase just slightly, remaining at $25-30 lb. for grade A/B (70-85% hatch rate, or 200,000-230,000 naupli/gram). If the producers claim that the percentage of good quality eggs is low, prices could climb a bit higher.
The market dynamics for brine shrimp egg prices are heavily dependent on commercial aquaculture hatcheries, primarily for marine shrimp. Thailand alone consumes some 50% of the world production of brine shrimp eggs. However, in the past two years the shrimp farming industry in Asia has been devastated by a virus, resulting in an oversupply of brine shrimp eggs on the market.
— G.C.K.A. Newsletter – January 1997