CYST HARVESTING
From: LabBiophysEcosys IBP guban@ibp.krasnoyarsk.su
To: Artemia Characterization artemia-l@email.sparklist.com
Sent: September 19, 2000
Is there any standardised methodology to estimate the maximum sustainable yield of Artemia cysts in a lake? What kind of information is required for this methodology?
Egor Zadereev
Laboratory of Biophysics of Ecosystems
Institute of Biophysics
Akademgorodok
660036 Krasnoyarsk
Russia
Tel: 7(3912) 495839
Fax: 7(3912) 433400
E-mail: guban@ibp.krasnoyarsk.su
***************
COMMENTS 1 :
This information is being attempted to be gathered now at the Great Salt
Lake in Utah. This is a salt lake of some 90 miles long and 40 miles
wide.
What size lake are you talking about managing the resource in?
Most of the salt lakes that I know of in Russia that have Artemia are
relatively small lakes (5000 to 30,000 ha).
Howard W. Newman
Desert Lake Technologies, LLC
hwnewman@desertlake.com
Tele: +(541) 885-6947
Fax: +(541) 885-6951
***************
COMMENTS 2:
We have calculated cyst production and followed the year to year variations in Artemia populations at Mono Lake for nearly 20 yrs. I do not believe there is any kind of standardized method and furthermore I do not think your question is a simple one.
Robert Jellison, Asst. Res. Biologist
Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory
University of CA, Santa Barbara
Rt. 1 Box 198
1016 Mt. Morrison Road
Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546, USA
Tel: office: 760/873-6445 lab: 760/935-4970
Fax: 760/935-4867
E-mail: jellison@lifesci.ucsb.edu
***************
COMMENTS 3:
The lake is very small - about 3 km². Actually, I was asked to evaluate the proposed cyst yield (80 tons per day). The information about Artemia population in the lake is limited and I have serious doubts that the proposed yield is sustainable.
Egor Zadereev
E-mail: guban@ibp.krasnoyarsk.su
***************
COMMENTS 4:
There is NO way that a lake this size can sustain a harvest of 80 MT's per year. What is the depth of this lake? Most of the lakes in the Altai and North Kazak region are very shallow and do not allow for high productivity. It is very difficult to do population dynamics on Artemia in salt lakes...even in salt ponds of several hundred hectares.
What is the salinity of the lake? What is the primary productivity (algae type)? What is the turbidity on a secchi disk? Is the population zygogenetic or parthenogenetic?
Howard W. Newman
E-mail: hwnewman@desertlake.com
***************
COMMENTS 5:
The lake has an average depth of about 2-3 meters. Actually there are no data about the trophic status of the lake and information about Artemia population in the lake is also very limited.
One private firm estimated the cyst production in the lake at about 80 MT per year. They used very limited information and a very speculative method. I did not believe in this estimation (even without precise information about the ecosystem) just because there were a lot of mistakes in used methods from a biological point of view. However, I decided to consult with specialists in this field. Now I see that even without information about the ecosystem dynamic you can estimate that this yield is impossible to achieve in this lake.
Egor Zadereev
E-mail: guban@ibp.krasnoyarsk.su
***************
COMMENTS 6:
It is not that this lake cannot produce 80 metric tonnes of cysts in a year...the challenge is to sustain this kind of yield and this is where I believe it is not achievable. Everyone needs to keep in mind that the Great Salt Lake in Utah has produced +/- 5000 metric tonnes of product for many years and NO other resource has been challenged like this. Once these small salt lakes are challenged year after year it is obvious that they will drop off in productivity in record time. In the future, the salt lakes that are managed correctly, will be the ones that survive and will provide some productivity for years to come.
Howard W. Newman
E-mail: hwnewman@desertlake.com
***************
COMMENTS 7:
Is it possible to maintain high production by controlling the nutrient levels in the lake? A fish farm along the shore line producing >100 MT/year would discharge enough nutrients to mass balance the system.
Dallas E. Weaver, Ph.D.
E-mail: deweaver@gte.net
***************
COMMENTS 8 :
Most of these Artemia habitats are logistically isolated from areas of freshwater or suitable saltwater for any type of aquaculture except Artemia. Normally, nutrients are not the limiting factor in primary productivity, but rather weather patterns, lake depth and the biggest interference is on two legs....
Howard W. Newman
E-mail: hwnewman@desertlake.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
home