Like the Great Salt Lake, Mono Lake is too salty for fish, which means brine shrimp thrive. See what else the two bodies of water have in common — and how they differ.
One of Mono Lake’s iconic tufa formations is pictured on the south shore of the lake in Mono County, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022.This Great Salt Lake Collaborative story is part of day three of our series, “At water’s edge: Searching for solutions at the Great Salt Lake’s sister lakes across the Great Basin.” The in-depth project features the work of multiple journalists from multiple Utah news organizations.
One big difference between the species is that Mono Lake’s shrimp cysts sink, while the Great Salt Lake cysts float. Brine shrimp cyst harvesting has ballooned into a multimillion-dollar industry in Utah because floating cysts are easier to collect, package and ship. Live shrimp are harvested at Mono Lake to feed exotic pet fish, but on a much smaller scale.
• Mono Lake, however, is blocked from having its water siphoned away entirely and becoming a dry salt flat like Owens Lake. That’s because advocates and environmental nonprofits successfully argued in court that California had a duty to protect natural resources like Mono Lake for the benefit of the public. Utah has different politics and the Great Salt Lake is a lot larger and a lot more complicated, with more cities, farmers and industries tapping its tributaries.
A sign, which indicates the historic water level of Mono Lake in 1941 before water diversions by Los Angeles first began, is pictured at Mono Lake Park near Lee Vining, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022.
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