Here's Part II of our inadvertent "freaky desert phenomena" weekend special: First was Saturday's mysterious moving rocks; now spontaneous-shrimp Sunday!
It was with regret that we wrote, back in January 2013, about the quiet demise of the Blue Oasis shrimp farm, which had made a valiant attempt at supplying organic edible shrimp to Las Vegas--the shrimp-eating capital of the world, where no less than 22 million pounds of the crustaceans are consumed each year. Just two years prior, the 30,000-square-foot, $5 million North Las Vegas facility had reported a healthy first harvest and a "robust first few months" serving organic shrimp to a list of 17 restaurants on the Strip, their clientele boasting the likes of Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali. and Larry's Great Western Meats. There was talk of deal in the works to supply Albertson's supermarket chain. But less than two years later it was all over, presumably yet another cost-cutting victim of the economic downturn that saw a reluctant citywide return to imported shrimp of the frozen, preservative-laced variety.
However, as you heard, we do still have shrimp in the desert, just not of the kind favored by humans. The little critters you're referring to are anostraca or "fairy shrimp," which are found particularly in the Black Rock Desert conservation area north of Reno. These amazing creatures are born of eggs that lay dormant in the silt crust for extended periods of time -- sometimes many years -- but which, following any prolonged wet period (mainly occurring in the spring), will burst into life, as if by magic, in the pools of water that accumulate, particularly around the edges of the playa. These little guys hatch, mature, and mate before their vernal pool dries up, laying their eggs or "cysts" in the sand or mud prior to their 15 minutes-or-so of fame being up. And there their dormant offspring will remain until the next rainfall brings them to life.
Fairy shrimp, which when mature can measure up to an inch long, have transparent bodies and multiple pairs of legs and tend to share their temporary pool dwellings with other proponents of the live-fast, die-young lifestyle like midge larvae, all of which are prey to the 250+ species of migratory neo-tropical and water birds that favor this region as a refreshing rest stop on their long travels.
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