In the last decade the Aral Sea brine shrimp has been the basic component of life in the Aral some 99% of its total biomass. The nutritional properties of newly hatched brine shrimp make them particularly suitable to be sold as a food source for fish and crustaceans raised in home aquariums, aquaculture systems, and in laboratories. They are high in lipids and unsaturated fatty acids (but very low in calcium).
Aral Sea artemia cysts
Usually they are sold in egg/cyst form. Brine shrimp eggs are metabolically inactive and can remain in total stasis for several years while in dry oxygen-free conditions, even at temperatures below freezing. Known as cryptobiosis, brine shrimp eggs can survive temperatures of liquid air (−190 °C) and a small percentage can survive above boiling temperature (105 °C) for up to two hours.
Once reintroduced to brine (salt) water, the cyst-like eggs hatch within a few hours. The nauplii, or larvae, are less than 0.5 mm in length when they first hatch. Brine shrimp have a biological life cycle of one year, during which they grow to a mature length of around one centimetre on average. This short life span, along with other characteristics such as their ability to remain dormant for long periods, makes them one of the most durable lifeforms on the planet.
The global demand for Artemia biomass is about 3000 tons per year, and is on the increase. It is a huge potential new industry for Karakalpakstan. Already an industry is being developed in Kazakhstan and there is no reason that this can't also be carried out on the Uzbek side of the Aral.