The study of brine shrimp began in 1755 and has a history of more than 25 years. However, the use of brine shrimp as bait for aquatic animals began in the 193s. In 1933, Seale in the United States used the newly hatched nauplii of brine shrimp as live bait for sole larvae, and then Rollefsen in Norway also used brine shrimp as bait to cultivate fry. Their experiments were successful, which strongly confirmed that the nauplii of brine shrimp was a good bait for larvae and juveniles. At the same time, the investigation, collection, incubation and culture of brine shrimp eggs were carried out accordingly, and many valuable materials were obtained.

since the 196s, many countries in the world have successively experimented and produced brine shrimp, which has developed rapidly. In Brazil, the Philippines, India and other countries, large-scale aquaculture experiments of brine shrimp were carried out, and indoor high-density intensive culture experiments were carried out in Belgium and the United States. Especially in the past 3 years, the production of brine shrimp aquaculture has achieved great social and economic benefits, which has aroused widespread concern in the world.

first, the present situation of brine shrimp industry in China

The research on brine shrimp in China began in the late 195s. Because mariculture was not developed at that time, brine shrimp did not attract enough attention. With the development of aquaculture in neighboring countries and regions in the 197s, the production of shrimp eggs in brine in China was influenced and promoted. At that time, most of them were exported every year except to meet a few domestic needs. In the 198s, due to the popularization of shrimp breeding and breeding research results in China, a large-scale shrimp breeding upsurge was set off in the whole country, so the demand for brine shrimp eggs was in short supply, and China changed from the original exporter of brine shrimp eggs to a pure importer. Hundreds of tons of brine shrimp eggs are imported every year. Because of its high price, brine shrimp and brine shrimp eggs are vigorously developed in coastal salt fields and inland salt lakes in China. In the 199s, the output of shrimp culture was once reduced due to diseases. However, due to the promotion and popularization of Eriocheir sinensis and Macrobrachium rosenbergii, the demand for brine shrimp eggs increased greatly, which prompted the research and development of brine shrimp eggs in China to gradually extend from coastal areas to inland salt lakes and set off the climax of brine shrimp production.

There are two main sources of raw materials for shrimp eggs in brine in China: one is coastal salt fields, and the other is inland salt lakes. In the former, the total area of Yantian is more than 7, hectares, with an annual output of 5 ~ 8 t of brine shrimp eggs. In the latter, the developed water area is 2km2, with an estimated annual output of 9t. China produces about 12 ~ 15 t (crude product) of brine shrimp eggs every year. At present, three distribution centers have been formed: Haixing County, Hebei Province, Wudi County, Shandong Province and Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province.

The main problems in China's brine shrimp industry are: the collection and processing are all manual operations, and there is almost no brine shrimp egg production and processing enterprise with complete production equipment. Therefore, the processing technology is primitive, the technology is backward, the storage conditions are poor, the water content is high and the hatching rate is low.

In view of the present situation of brine shrimp industry in China, the following suggestions are put forward: ① Broaden the producing areas and develop new areas. There are more than 3 inland salt lakes, especially those in Tibet, but only a few salt lakes are being developed, so the development potential is huge; (2) Strengthen the management of brine shrimp production, and prohibit cool catching and indiscriminate mining; ③ Further improve the technological level.

second, the present situation of brine shrimp industry in the United States

The United States is the earliest country in the world to develop and utilize brine shrimp resources in salt lakes, and the Great Salt Lake is the earliest area in the United States to develop and utilize brine shrimp, and the output of brine shrimp eggs in this lake ranks first in the United States, accounting for more than 8% of the world's output. Here, focus on the status quo of brine shrimp industry in Great Salt Lake.

The Great Salt Lake is located in Utah, which is the largest salt lake in North America and the salt lake with the highest salt content. The salt lake is a rectangle with NW-SE distribution. The salt lake is 12km long, 51.5km wide and covers an area of about 618km2, which is larger than the famous Chaerhan Salt Lake in China. Salt Lake is located in a closed fault basin, which is in the shape of a dustpan, and the salt lake is located at the lowest place in the northwest. Salt Lake is the remnant of Bonneville Great Lake. There are three long rivers flowing into the east side of the salt lake, from south to north, followed by Jordan River, Weber River and Bear River. Due to the long-term stable injection of three rivers, the salt lake has maintained a stable high water level. The water level varies from 1284 to 1277 m. The maximum depth of salt lake is 1m.

The brine shrimp industry in the Great Salt Lake of the United States began in 1949 when C.C.Sanders, the owner of tropical fish, visited the Great Salt Lake. In this year, Sanders discovered that the Great Salt Lake is indeed rich in brine shrimp resources with nutritional value for tropical fish. In 195, he began to develop and produce this new fish bait resource in Great Salt Lake, and founded the world's first Sanders Brine Shrimp Company. At that time, the products were frozen brine shrimp adults, but the production of frozen brine shrimp products was stopped due to rising costs and falling profits. In 1952, shrimp eggs in brine were collected. From 196s to 197s, with the progress of science and technology, people's understanding of the role of brine shrimp was continuously improved and deepened, and three companies and individuals successively entered the Great Salt Lake to collect brine shrimp eggs. In 198s, with the breakthrough of shrimp breeding and aquaculture technology and the rapid development of aquaculture all over the world, the development of brine shrimp industry was greatly stimulated. In 199s, the emergence of new aquaculture species such as Eriocheir sinensis, Macrobrachium rosenbergii and Penaeus monodon further promoted the production of brine shrimp in Great Salt Lake.

Great Salt Lake has the best brand of brine shrimp and the most influential companies in the world. They are Ocean Star, Invest (registered in Belgium) and Sanders.

In recent years, due to the El Ni? o phenomenon, the water level in the Great Salt Lake of the United States has risen and the salinity has decreased, so some large brine shrimp companies have turned their raw material collection places to salt lakes in Central Asia and other countries. Due to fierce competition, the brine shrimp industry in China has also been affected.

The United States not only uses brine shrimp eggs and larvae as high-quality bait for cultivating fish, shrimp and shellfish larvae, but also uses adults as bait for aquaculture animals. In 23, when the author visited the aquariums in New Orleans and San Antonio, USA, he saw that brine shrimp adults were used as bait for hippocampus larvae (Plate 3-15).

Third, the situation of brine shrimp industry in other parts of the world

In addition to China and the United States, the former Soviet Union is also one of the producing areas with rich brine shrimp resources, which has a variety of brine shrimp egg product brands. In addition, more than 2 countries including Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, India, Iran, Israel, Australia, France, Italy and Belgium have brine shrimp industries. The quality of shrimp eggs in brine varies from place to place. The facts show that the nauplii of brine shrimp from different habitats are not all suitable for all kinds of animals. Generally speaking, the quality of products in Laval, Brazil, Maglepei, San Francisco Bay in California, Great Salt Lake in Utah, Shaq Bay in Australia, Tianjin in China and Yuncheng in Shanxi are better.

iv. medicinal value of brine shrimp

besides being used as feed for aquaculture (according to statistics, 85% of feed for cultured marine fish and shrimp is brine shrimp), brine shrimp can also be used as medical and health food for human beings. It was found that brine shrimp not only contains more than 6% (dry weight) of protein, but also is rich in carotene, riboflavin, hemoglobin, long-chain unsaturated fatty acids and some hormones, which has the function of medical care.

At present, a kind of "brine shrimp pancake" is sold in the markets of the United States, New Zealand and other countries. It tastes like dried shrimp and is more delicious. As a health food, it has a good market. In some parts of North America, residents use brine shrimp as food, which has the effect of strengthening body building.

In addition, because brine shrimp is a non-selective filter-feeding animal, it can swallow particles smaller than 5μm and fill the gastrointestinal tract in a short time. People can use this characteristic to feed it to aquatic animals as some drug carriers, so as to achieve the purpose of disease prevention and treatment.