We are well into summer fishing season but, right now it is peak season for an unusual catch...sea-monkeys.
Sea-monkey harvesting is underway at Mono Lake. These aquatic pets have been sold out of the back of comic books and in toy stores since 1957, but the ones caught at Mono Lake serve a much different purpose, they're either sold to pet stores as food for exotic fish or fed to larger shrimp grown on farms.
The truth is sea-monkeys are actually brine shrimp. Tom Jones and his wife Hillary run High Sierra Brine Shrimp in Lee Vining. He says Mono Lake is a unique fishing area.
"This water is exceptionally salty," Tom says. "It’s about three times as salty as the ocean."
There is no outflow at Mono Lake, so when the mineral-rich water evaporates, salt is left behind along with a few other natural wonders called tufas.
"Tufas are what Mono Lake is famous for," Tom said, adding that they're natural springs bubbling up, leaving limestone deposits behind. Those natural springs are prime brine shrimp fishing spots.
Tom and his two other crew members use boats to string large, finely woven nets in strategic spots in the lake.
"Basically, they look like a giant sausage clipped on both ends," Tom said. "We work it down and pour it in the tank."
Mono Lake is really the only place in the United States where you can naturally and legally harvest live brine shrimp. And there is plenty of it.
"So they estimate there is about six trillion brine shrimp born every year," Jones said.
Brine shrimp harvest is from June to September, and during that time, a load of shrimp is dropped off at the High Sierra Brine Shrimp processing plant about every hour.
"An average day for us is about 3,000 kilos (6,600 lbs)," Jones said.
It takes a crew of about 12 people to clean, process, package and freeze the shrimp before they are shipped off to distributors. The Mono Lake brine dhrimp are shipped all over the world, including Mexico and Indonesia. The one place brine shrimp don't go is into toy plastic sea monkey aquariums.
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