Getting Artemia preparation wrong costs hatcheries in survival rates, wasted cysts, and feed bills. At Partnerships to Practice: An Artemia Workshop, held at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, industry, government, and researchers validated a new set of hatchery good-practice tools: SOP sheets, checklists, and demonstration videos covering Artemia biosecurity, enrichment, and biomass production in hatchery environments.

Delegates also discussed building a global inventory of Artemia genetic resources tracking genetic and nutritional characteristics, hatching rates and strain performance to help hatcheries pick the right strain for their systems instead of relying on guesswork. The goal of the practices, based on the FAO Manual on Artemia Production and Use, are to optimise yield and reduce wastage of expensive Artemia resources, and to provide instruction on cold storage, enrichment, and biosecurity on the hatchery floor.

In Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, farmer Ayapbergen Ajimuratov is turning one of the region's most enduring problems into a livelihood. As the Aral Sea has shrunk over decades, it has left behind land saturated with saline water too salty to drink or irrigate crops with. Rather than treating it as waste, Ayapbergen has channelled it into six aquaculture ponds on a single hectare of land, becoming one of the first farmers in the district to cultivate Artemia and raise snakehead fish on a circular system where each stage feeds the next.

With support from a UNDP project backed by the Government of the Russian Federation, he received the ponds along with solar panels, a power transformer, a freezer for the harvest, and an on-site cabin. A community water purification system supplies around 1,500 cubic metres of saline water year-round. The farm is now producing fish and employing local workers - a small but meaningful step in rebuilding livelihoods in one of the world's most environmentally damaged regions.

Read the full story at the UNDP Uzbekistan website.

Artemia show substantial differences in their characteristics not only between species, but also between populations of the same species. There are multiple parthenogenic lineages with distinct genesis. A new IAAC paper addresses the persistent issue of failing to correctly document the provenance of Artemia used in research.

Abstract: Brine shrimp (Artemia) are indispensable in global aquaculture and widely utilized as model organisms across diverse biological disciplines. Nevertheless, a considerable proportion of published studies suffer from irreproducibility and reduced reliability, often due to inadequate consideration of taxonomic resolution. In particular, the persistent and erroneous application of the binomial designation Artemia salina as a generic reference to all species, populations, and parthenogenetic lineages represents a major source of confusion. This article emphasizes that taxonomy is not merely a formal exercise in classical biology but a fundamental scientific framework for cataloguing and conserving Artemia wild biodiversity at both the population/lineage and species levels, in accordance with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). In the absence of taxonomic verification and clear documentation of the geographic origin of Artemia specimens, the findings of most studies committing this A. salina fallacy cannot be reliably reproduced or independently validated.

Full paper available from:

• Asem A, Gajardo G, Sui L, Sung YY and Sorgeloos P (2026). The "Artemia salina" fallacy: resolving taxonomic misidentification in the brine shrimp model organism used across diverse biological disciplines. Zoological Joural of the Linnean Society 207(2):zlag103.

Farmers in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, have discovered how to transform seasonal salt farming into a year-round income source. By integrating artemia culture alongside traditional salt production, smallholder farmers are now cultivating fish, shrimp, and vegetables on the same land during the rainy season, with artemia ponds sitting alongside tilapia nurseries and vegetable gardens on pond dikes.

Supported by the EU's DeSIRA initiative, adopter farmers increased their earnings by at least 40%, with some demonstration farmers achieving gains of up to 83%. The artemia produced serves as high-quality live feed for shrimp hatcheries, tested at 51% crude protein and free of major pathogens. Women participants gained training in nutrition and hygiene, along with greater roles in household decision-making. This case study shows how integrated farming approaches can strengthen food security, improve livelihoods, and build climate resilience for coastal communities vulnerable to cyclones and flooding.

This webinar presented the results of an in-depth analysis of Artemia production, conservation and investment opportunities by the World Bank Group, with expert input from members of the International Artemia Consortium.

Artemia (brine shrimp) is a critical live feed in aquaculture, particularly in hatcheries for shrimp, fish, and ornamental species. Its production and sustainable management are increasingly important as aquaculture expands globally. Global Artemia markets face increasing demand, while new innovations in farming, processing, and conservation offer opportunities for inclusive investment, resilience, and biodiversity protection.

This event brought together global experts, policymakers, private sector representatives, and development partners to discuss the state of Artemia production and conservation, market opportunities, regulatory frameworks, and pathways for sustainable and viable investment.

The Global Artemia Summit was held on 27 June 2025 in Entebbe, Uganda, as a special session during the World Aquaculture Society’s Safari Conference. Co-hosted by the World Bank and FutureFish, the event brought together experts, government officials, private sector stakeholders, and researchers to discuss strategies for enhancing Artemia aquaculture and conservation.

The summit addressed growing concerns over Artemia resource constraints due to overharvesting, environmental degradation, and climate impacts, while highlighting new opportunities for sustainable production, particularly in Africa. Sessions explored integrated Artemia-salt farming systems, human food applications, value chain development, and public-private investment models. Panel discussions and networking sessions promoted knowledge exchange and south-south collaboration.

Presentation made at the Global Artemia Summit, held 27 June in conjunction with WAS Safari 2025, Entebbe, Uganda. Presentation by Kartik Baruah, Stephanie De Vos, Parisa Norouzitallab and Patrick Sorgeloos.

Presentation made at the Global Artemia Summit, held 27 June in conjunction with WAS Safari 2025, Entebbe, Uganda. Presentation by Nguyen Van Hoa.

Presentation made at the Global Artemia Summit, held 27 June in conjunction with WAS Safari 2025, Entebbe, Uganda. Presentation by Patipon Srianek for Bunjonk Farm.

Presentation made at the Global Artemia Summit, held 27 June in conjunction with WAS Safari 2025, Entebbe, Uganda. Presentation by Davletiyar Djiemuratov.

Presentation made at the Global Artemia Summit, held 27 June in conjunction with WAS Safari 2025, Entebbe, Uganda. Presentation by Yeong Yik Sung.

The brine shrimp Artemia, a crustacean adapted to the extreme conditions of hypersaline environments, comprises nine regionally distributed sexual species scattered (island-like) over heterogeneous environments and asexual (parthenogenetic) lineages with different ploidies. Such sexual and asexual interaction within the genus raises questions regarding the origin and time of divergence of both sexual species and asexual lineages, including the persistence of the latter over time, a problem not yet clarified using single mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Based on the complete mitochondrial genome of all species and parthenogenetic lineages, this article first describes the mitogenomic characteristics (nucleotide compositions, genome mapping, codon usage, and tRNA secondary structure) of sexual species and asexual types and, secondly, it provides a comprehensive updated phylogenetic analysis. Molecular dating and geographical evidence suggest that the ancestral Artemia taxon originated in ca. 33.97 Mya during the Paleogene Period. The mitogenomic comparisons suggest that the common ancestor of diploid and triploid parthenogenetic lineages (ca. 0.07 Mya) originated from a historical ancestor (ca. 0.61 Mya) in the Late Pleistocene. Additionally, the common ancestor of tetraploid and pentaploid parthenogenetic lineages (ca. 0.05 Mya) diverged from a historical maternal ancestor with A. sinica (ca. 0.96 Mya) in the early Pleistocene. The parthenogenetic lineages do not share a direct ancestor with any sexual species. The Asian clade ancestor diverged more recently (ca. 14.27 Mya, Middle Miocene). The mitogenomic characteristics, maternal phylogenetic tree, and especially divergence time prove that A. monica and A. franciscana are two biological species.

A summary of the presentation "Reduction in Artemia nauplii fed to shrimp larvae: Does this result in a reduction of larvae cost at the expense of an increase in farm cost" is available from the link below. The presentation was given by Robins McIntosh at Larvi 2024 (9-12 September) in Ostend, Belgium. The presentation is authored by Robins McIntoshy, Wisurut Jungprung and Sudharma Choosuk.

Although the drying up of the Aral Sea and the salinization of a lot of agricultural lands in different regions in Uzbekistan (UZB) and Kazakhstan (KAZ) have major negative consequences, there is a high potential to develop a new profitable industry and create new job opportunities in this region: the environmental-friendly and sustainable pond farming of brine shrimp Artemia, a wellknown source of food in the farming of fish and crustacean species around the world. This workshop aims to show the outcomes of the implemented Artemia pilot project, present guidelines and recommendations important for such a new business sector, lessons learned and discuss prospects of Artemia production to further develop aquaculture sector in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The first International Artemia Aquaculture Consortium (IAAC) conference was a free half day event held in Ostend, Belgium on 9 September, as a prelude to Larvi 2024. The conference presentations provided an overview of many of the issues surrounding Artemia, including management of salt lakes habitats that still provide the bulk of global Artemia supplies, Artemia biodiversity, hatching optimisation, and aquaculture of Artemia biomass in tanks and ponds. Video recordings of the presentations are available within.