---
title: what brine shrimp need the lake to be
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-brine-shrimp-need-the-lake-to-be
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-brine-shrimp-need-the-lake-to-be.md
subtitle: "a salinity, a season, and twenty-one companies that already harvest the cysts"
category: ecosystem-services
---

# what brine shrimp need the lake to be

*a salinity, a season, and twenty-one companies that already harvest the cysts*

Sunset on 6 February 2026 came to the Great Salt Lake at 5:52 p.m. MST. The brine shrimp harvest on both arms closed with that light. Four days earlier, one liter from the south arm had already been counted.

On 2 February that liter held 21.35 cysts, 0.17 nauplii, 0.00 juveniles, 0.01 males, and 0.02 females. The Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program wrote those densities in a letter dated 5 February, totaled the pounds through 4 February, and set the sunset. If you run a boat or a shore crew here, that sequence is your season. If your fish start on these eggs, the company on the invoice is still drawing them from this liter.

**Brine shrimp** (*Artemia franciscana*) need this lake to be a salinity they can live in, and a spring cyst count inside a band the state already prints. The February liter is a winter sample from the south arm. The band is the spring rule. Treat the liter and the band as two samples.

## what one liter held in february

The letter's south-arm sample is a set of densities per liter, taken 2 February 2026.

| stage | per liter |
| --- | --- |
| cysts | 21.35 |
| nauplii | 0.17 |
| juveniles | 0.00 |
| males | 0.01 |
| females | 0.02 |

**Cysts** are the resting eggs. **Nauplii** are the hatchlings. Juveniles, males, and females are the swimming stages after that. In this liter the eggs were nearly the whole density. The swimmers were a trace.

The harvest takes those eggs. Seasons usually run October through January. This letter closed an emergency extension. The pounds through 4 February 2026:

| where | pounds |
| --- | --- |
| lake | 30,301,738 |
| shore | 10,326,934 |
| salt ponds | 0 |
| total | 40,628,672 |

Open-water crews are the lake row, 30,301,738 pounds. Shore landings are the next row, 10,326,934 pounds, taken where the brine meets the bed. Salt ponds were at zero through 4 February. At 5:52 p.m. MST on 6 February, sunset closed both arms. Salt-pond harvest could continue after that light, and it still had to be reported.

21.35 sits near 21. The band's 21 is a spring optimum. This 21.35 is one south-arm liter on 2 February, with the extension in its last days. A winter density can sit near that optimum and still leave spring for a later sample.

## the band the program already printed

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources states the Ecosystem Program's band on its brine shrimp harvest page. A severe crash is possible if spring cyst numbers drop below 4 per liter, or if they approach 80 per liter. Continued harvest has been used to reach an optimal 21 cysts per liter.

| spring cysts per liter | the program's stated band |
| --- | --- |
| below 4 | A severe crash is possible |
| 21 | Continued harvest has been used to reach this figure |
| approaching 80 | A severe crash is possible |

That is the program's band, for spring. The 5 February letter is the winter liter, the pounds through 4 February, and the clock time of the close. A severe crash is the condition the page names when a spring count leaves the band. The letter's job was ending the extension. The spring count is a later sample.

Continued harvest, in that same program sentence, is how the office says the spring number has been brought to 21 cysts per liter. The companies are inside the design. They take the eggs under that rule. Their exposure starts when the lake can no longer offer a spring liter inside the band. A **certificate of registration** is the state's permission to work whatever season the water gives. The surface they harvest on is a separate fact, set by how much river water remained.

## twenty-one companies, already in the water

As of 2026, 21 companies harvest in the north arm and the south arm. Seventy-nine certificates of registration are available each year. If your company is one of the 21, October is the start you crew for, and January is the usual end. The 6 February sunset finished an extension. The usual season stayed October through January.

Those registrations met a recorded harvest: 40,628,672 pounds through 4 February, lake and shore together, salt ponds still at zero that day. The pounds are what the crews landed. A later season at that scale needs the lake to keep producing cysts, and a spring liter inside that band.

The elevation is set upriver of any registration. A dry year moves it. Water used on the way down moves it. Salinity moves with it. The Bear, the Weber, and the Jordan end here. Water leaves as vapor, the salt stays, and a lower lake is a stronger brine. A spring count under 4 cysts per liter, or one approaching 80, is the program's description of when a severe crash is possible. The crews would meet that as a season that cannot repeat the letter's pounds. They are already on the water.

John Luft manages the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program. The office samples the arms and published the 5 February letter. The band is on the harvest page. The close is in the letter. That is the work a company already depends on, done by the people who hold the sample.

## the salinity is the water that stayed

The shrimp need an elevation that leaves a salinity they can live in. Carter Williams, writing for KSL through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, posted the levels on 25 September 2026, after the summer drop. The south arm stood at 4,189.7 feet. The north arm stood at 4,189.6 feet. The lake was over 8 feet below the state's minimum healthy level, and a little more than a foot of elevation above the 2022 record low.

From the shore that week the water was still a lake. The healthy line sat more than 8 feet above it. A lower lake holds its salt in less water, so the brine runs stronger, and the shrimp live in that brine. [What the great salt lake actually is](/guide/what-the-great-salt-lake-actually-is?from=guide) is the Bear, the Weber, and the Jordan with nowhere else to go. The February densities are a south-arm liter. The north arm runs saltier, and the close named both arms because one brine's count does not stand for the other. September's elevations are a later day than the cysts. The animal lives in the pair: eggs in a liter, and a surface that keeps the salinity workable.

The state's minimum healthy level is the elevation named for that pairing. September was still above the record-low year, and far enough under the healthy line that salinity is the risk for anyone whose season is these eggs.

Submerged, and at a workable salinity, the microbialite mats are a seasonal food for the shrimp, and falling water dries them. The mound is [a microbialite is not a water level](/guide/a-microbialite-is-not-a-water-level?from=guide).

:::johnson
**the water that arrived has to stay in the lake.**

The Bear, the Weber, and the Jordan end here. Brine shrimp live in the elevation and the salinity the remaining water makes.

[see the lake this count belongs to →](/great-salt-lake.basin?from=guide)
:::

## the count, and a hold beside it

If your company is one of the 21, you share a calendar with the other crews and with the people who lift the liter. If a hatchery you supply, or a hatchery you buy from, starts fish on these eggs, you share the liter from the far end of the shipment. The Ecosystem Program holds the band, the sample, and the close. The companies hold the pounds. The elevation is the part neither desk finishes alone.

That water is the three rivers actually arriving. [The bear, the weber, and the jordan](/guide/the-bear-the-weber-and-the-jordan?from=guide) follows the inflows. If your headgate is on one of them, this cyst count is downstream of your season. Who is already sending water toward the lake is [who already sends water to the lake](/guide/who-already-sends-water-to-the-lake?from=guide).

The Great Salt Lake, its brine shrimp, and its microbialites exist whether or not anyone buys a certificate. [*Ensurance*](/great-salt-lake.basin?from=guide) funds that condition. It is not the lake.

For a harvest company, and for a buyer whose fish start on these cysts, the exposure is the spring liter and the elevation that sets salinity. [Climate & nature risk assessment](/solutions/corporations?from=guide&topic=great-salt-lake) puts that dependency on one page: the band, the letter's pounds, and the September elevation, read as one operating condition. The unit beside a registration is the program's unit. Spring cysts per liter, next to the feet. The 2 February south-arm liter and the 25 September elevations are the latest public pair. They are two dates. They describe one animal's requirement.

The 79 certificates of registration stay with the Division of Wildlife Resources. They are harvest papers. Under the live place agent, **brine hold** is a line in ideation: [co-create it](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=great-salt-lake.basin&name=brine%20hold&from=guide). A person reviews it. The parent agent, [great-salt-lake.basin](/great-salt-lake.basin?from=guide), receives it. The line would fund the lake staying in the condition the shrimp need, beside the program's count and beside the harvest. The companies keep the registrations. The program keeps the letter.

## frequently asked questions

### what do brine shrimp need the great salt lake to be?

A workable salinity, set by the elevation of this terminal lake, and a spring cyst count inside the Ecosystem Program's band. A severe crash is possible below 4 cysts per liter or approaching 80, and the program describes 21 per liter as the optimum continued harvest has been used to reach. The south-arm reading of 21.35 cysts per liter on 2 February 2026 is the winter sample in the 5 February letter.

### when did the 2026 brine shrimp harvest close?

Sunset on 6 February 2026, at 5:52 p.m. MST, closed the emergency extension on both arms. The letter is dated 5 February. Through 4 February the harvest was 30,301,738 pounds from the lake, 10,326,934 pounds from shore, and 0 from the salt ponds, totaling 40,628,672 pounds. Salt-pond harvest could continue and still had to be reported.

### how many companies harvest brine shrimp on the great salt lake?

As of 2026, 21 companies harvest in the north and south arms. The state makes 79 certificates of registration available each year. Seasons usually run October to January.

### who counts the brine shrimp?

The Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program, which John Luft manages. The program samples the lake. The 5 February 2026 letter records the 2 February south-arm liter, the pounds through 4 February, and the sunset close.

### is 21.35 cysts per liter the spring population?

21.35 is the south-arm density on 2 February 2026. The program's band applies to spring cyst numbers, and 21 per liter is the optimum that band names. A winter liter can sit near that figure and still leave the spring sample for a later date. The letter closed an extension. The band's crash language is about spring, and the letter was the close.

## sources

[Brine shrimp harvest](https://wildlife.utah.gov/index.php?catid=13&id=1017&option=com_content&view=article) — Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. As of 2026, 21 companies harvest in the north and south arms. Seventy-nine certificates of registration are available each year. Seasons usually run October to January. The program's stated band: a severe crash is possible if spring cyst numbers drop below 4 per liter or approach 80 per liter, and continued harvest has been used to reach an optimal 21 cysts per liter.

[5 February 2026 sampling and harvest letter](https://wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/gsl/harvest/2026-02-05-gslep-brine-shrimp-sampling-and-harvest-report.pdf) — Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program. South-arm sample from 2 February 2026, per liter: cysts 21.35, nauplii 0.17, juveniles 0.00, males 0.01, females 0.02. Cumulative harvest through 4 February: lake 30,301,738 pounds, shore 10,326,934, salt ponds 0, total 40,628,672. The emergency extension closed 6 February 2026 at sunset, 5:52 p.m. MST, on both arms. Salt-pond harvest could continue and still had to be reported.

[Many groups are trying to save the Great Salt Lake](https://www.ksl.com/article/51627764/many-groups-are-trying-to-save-the-great-salt-lake-heres-how-they-can-better-collaborate) — Carter Williams, KSL, posted 25 September 2026, through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative. South arm 4,189.7 feet and north arm 4,189.6 feet as of Wednesday, after the summer drop. Over 8 feet below the state's minimum healthy level, and a little more than a foot above the 2022 record low.

[Desiccation of ecosystem-critical microbialites in the shrinking Great Salt Lake](https://journals.plos.org/water/article?id=10.1371/journal.pwat.0000100) — PLOS Water. When microbialites are submerged and at a workable salinity, their mats are a seasonal food of brine shrimp. Falling level dries the mats.

## the series

1. [what the great salt lake actually is](/guide/what-the-great-salt-lake-actually-is?from=guide)
2. [what brine shrimp need the lake to be](/guide/what-brine-shrimp-need-the-lake-to-be?from=guide) *(this post)*
3. [a microbialite is not a water level](/guide/a-microbialite-is-not-a-water-level?from=guide)
4. [great salt lake dust is the lakebed](/guide/great-salt-lake-dust-is-the-lakebed?from=guide)
5. [the bear, the weber, and the jordan](/guide/the-bear-the-weber-and-the-jordan?from=guide)
6. [who already sends water to the lake](/guide/who-already-sends-water-to-the-lake?from=guide)