January 3, 2001
Total harvest from the 2000/2001 harvest season on the Great Salt Lake was 19,398,704 lb. (unprocessed weight). This "raw weight" translates into approximately 5 million pounds of finished product. As the past few harvest seasons have been very poor, it is certain that the remaining Artemia suppliers will ration their inventory for the long-term.
As most of the raw material has not yet broken diapause (dormancy), it is too early to predict the overall quality of this year's harvest. Therefore, most of the marketing and sales of this year's harvest will not begin until February/March.
January 28, 2000
Prices for all grades of Artemia cysts surge higher due to shrinking inventories, increased demand, and poor harvest projections from abroad (Tibet, Siberia, Turkmenistan, and China). Although the 1999 harvest from the Great Salt Lake will soon become available, total finished product should supply no more than 25% of the world demand.
December 22, 1999
Estimated harvest to date of raw Artemia cysts from the North Arm of the Great Salt Lake is up to 2.8 million pounds, up slightly higher than earlier projected (in the November 5 update).
November 5, 1999
Harvesting efforts on the north arm of the Great Salt Lake are discouraging as concentrations of floating cysts are scarce considering the harvest effort involved. Harvest yields have been so bad that some companies have decided to stop harvest operations altogether to cut costs.
The likelihood of opening the harvest on the south arm of the lake is very low. Cyst production in the south arm will not meet the minimum concentration required to open the harvest. Moreover, even if the DWR opened the harvest in the south arm, harvesting would be more difficult due to the low salinity and reduced buoyancy of the cysts.
Projected overall harvest may only reach 1.5 million pounds (raw), well below last year's "poor" harvest of 5 million pounds.
October 23, 1999
The State has agreed to allow harvesting Artemia cysts from the North Arm of the Great Salt Lake starting October 25th.
Once the counts of Artemia cysts in the South Arm goes above the minimum the State will let us start harvesting, however there is uncertainty at this time if these counts will reach the required levels this year. This may mean that there will not be a harvest from the South Arm, which is where we have always harvested the best quality from in the past.
October 7, 1999
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has placed
the second seven-day delay on the opening of the brine shrimp harvest season until sometime in November. The DWR can postpone the start of the harvest once more before it has to declare the season "open" or "closed.
September 13, 1999
The consolidation continues within Utah's Artemia
cyst harvesting/processing companies. Look for wholesale prices to work its way up as competition within the industry reduces from 20+ companies to fewer than a dozen by years end.
