| OCR Text |
Show harvesting of brine shrimp. This plan cannot supersede the legally required mandates of the various divisions and their boards. Therefore such issues as COR distribution, harvesting season opening/ closing and COR fees are legally addressed by the Utah Wildlife Board. The significant decline ofGSL brine shrimp cysts as a proportion of the world's supply; GSL used to supply 90 percent and that number has recently declined to 40 percent for a number of reasons. Due to the variability of the proportion of world supply harvested off GSL, this statement has been changed in the document. It now reads that cysts harvested from GSL provide " a significant but declining proportion of the world's supply of cysts..." Brine shrimp and mineral industry employment estimates are low in the document. Make any necessary corrections or better explain your sources. After checking again with Utah Workforce Services, the following numbers were given for minimum employment on the lake: 1,127 employees in mineral extraction and 177 employees in brine shrimp harvesting. This number should be considered a minimum because data on employment at all companies are not available. Specific employment numbers for the recreation sector on the lake were not ascertained. This information has been noted in the text under the " Commercial and Industrial Uses" section. A suggestion to eliminate the brine shrimp royalty and increase the cost ofCORs. The brine shrimp royalty tax was established by the Legislature and would need to be repealed by that body. The cost of a COR funds research, management and law enforcement activities. Royalties on natural resources compensate the state for a partial value of the resource. The Legislature then decides how to allocate those funds. The length of the brine shrimp season has been so short that the COR is not worth what is being paid for it. The COR revenues are used for research, management and law enforcement activities on the lake. Those endeavors must continue irrespective of season length. If economic factors dictate that a COR is not worthwhile, the purchaser will make that decision. Has a contingent or nonmarket valuation of the lake's resources been considered? In the plan, we identify areas in need of future research. Contingent valuation and other types of nonmarket valuation of the lake's resources would help to ascertain other values of the resources, in addition to market values. A study such as this is recommended for future work on the lake under the " Commercial and Industrial Uses" section as time, human resources and funding permit. Some brine shrimpers have concerns that the biological data currently collected on brine shrimp have not been considered in decision- making, implementation and in determining when to close the season. 323 |
