© 2026 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our daily newsletter, delivered first thing weekdays, keeps you connected to your community with news, culture, national NPR headlines, and more.

Utah has named the brine shrimp the official state crustacean

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Leila Fadel. Some states have an official bird or a state flower. How about a state crustacean? Utah has bestowed that honor on the brine shrimp. The teensy critters are found all over the world. In Utah, they're in the Great Salt Lake. Brine shrimp provide food for fish and commercially grown shrimp, and that's a multimillion-dollar industry in Utah. Relatives of brine shrimp are even sold as novelty pets for aquariums. They're sea monkeys. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Thanks to you, WUSF is here — delivering fact-based news and stories that reflect our community.⁠ Your support powers everything we do.