Skip to content
CapRadio

CapRadio

listen live donate
listen live donate
listen live
donate
  • News
    • News

    • State Government
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Race and Equity
    • Business
    • Arts and Lifestyle
    • Food and Sustainability
    • PolitiFact California
    News
    • News

    • State Government
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Race and Equity
    • Business
    • Arts and Lifestyle
    • Food and Sustainability
    • PolitiFact California
  • Music
    • Music

    • Classical
    • Jazz
    • Eclectic

    • Daily Playlist
    Music
    • Music

    • Classical
    • Jazz
    • Eclectic

    • Daily Playlist
  • Podcasts & Shows
  • Schedules
  • Events
  • Support
    • Support
    • Ways to support
    • Evergreen Donation
    • One-Time Donation
    • Corporate Sponsorship
    • Vehicle Donation
    • Stock Giving
    • Legacy Giving
    • Endowment Support
    • Members
    • Member Benefits
    • Member FAQ
    • Member Newsletter

    • Fund drives
    • Drawing Winners
    • Thank You Gifts
    Support
    • Support
    • Ways to support
    • Evergreen Donation
    • One-Time Donation
    • Corporate Sponsorship
    • Vehicle Donation
    • Stock Giving
    • Legacy Giving
    • Endowment Support
    • Members
    • Member Benefits
    • Member FAQ
    • Member Newsletter

    • Fund drives
    • Drawing Winners
    • Thank You Gifts
  • About
  • Close Menu
 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 
 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 
  • Environment
  •  

Are Shrimp-Flavored Dog Treats The Answer To Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue?

  •  Ezra David Romero 
Friday, July 31, 2020 | Sacramento, CA
Emily Zentner / CapRadio

UC Davis research biologist Brant Allen examines the mysis shrimp his team just pulled out of Lake Tahoe.

Emily Zentner / CapRadio

Mention shrimp to Geoffrey Schladow and he’ll smile.

That’s because his team at the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center has come up with an idea to remove the invasive crustacean from Lake Tahoe.

Doing so, Schladow says, could help prevent climate change from destroying the lake’s  iconic blue hue. 

“We'd be removing things that cause clarity to decline, and so we'd have broken this cycle between climate change and declining clarity,” said Schladow, the director of TERC. 

The findings are part of TERC’s annual “Tahoe: State of the Lake Report,” which outlines data collected over the past year, laying out issues and potential solutions. The data builds on collection efforts all the way back to 1968.

From 2018 to 2019, Lake Tahoe lost 8.2 feet of clarity after gaining more than 10 feet the prior year. That’s important because the famed blue hue, which comes from snowmelt, is part of what makes the lake so visually stunning. 

When the group began taking measurements 52 years ago, researchers could see more than 100 feet into the lake; this year they could only see to a depth of an average 62.7 feet. 

Still, Schladow says one year of decreases doesn’t matter as much, because it’s just “part of the story in a regime of being on a plateau. It gets better one year and goes down the next.”

However, it’s still important, he admits, as the impacts of climate change — droughts, floods and more rain instead of snow — worsen in mountain regions like Lake Tahoe. 

“Even if the average may only be changing slightly, the highs and lows are starting to get further apart,” he added. 

But there's another ingredient already lurking in the depths of the lake that’s complicating Schladow's mission to return the lake to a pristine condition — even amid outside impacts like climate change. 

Trillions of tiny mysis shrimp — which humans put into the lake as trout food in the 1960s and then flourished and that live for a year or two — eat zooplankton that consume algae and sediment that cloud water. (Read about the shrimp and listen to a podcast episode.) 

After a strange, unexplainable turn of events nine years ago in Emerald Bay — a popular inlet known for its gem-like color — shrimp disappeared and the clarity doubled within two years. But when the shrimp returned, the clarity declined. In response, researchers have for several years manually removed shrimp with nets. 

An illustration of how the UC Davis researchers trawl for mysis shrimp in Lake Tahoe.Andrew Le for CapRadio

The shrimp are full of omega-3 fatty acids, which people consume when they buy fish oil pills. Schladow says it’s also good for dogs, so the university is launching a new private-public venture to develop a line of Tahoe dog treats made from the shrimp.

“We found out that by turning it into dog treats … we can actually make a profit,” he said. “There aren't many other projects I know of where environmental restoration pays for itself.”

Schladow says it could take three to four months to remove enough shrimp out of Emerald Bay to make a noticeable difference in clarity there. 

“Then, the question is how do you scale that up?” he asked. “Lake Tahoe is 100 times bigger than Emerald Bay, and you're not going to be able to do that in three or four months. And it's a question of, ‘Well, what's our target? Is it five years? Is it 10 years?’”

The venture involves researchers with TERC, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. If successful, the report suggests the nonprofit model would be a “new tool for clarity restoration,” even in the face of climate change’s impacts on the region.

“Because so many people own dogs and love talking about their dogs, we thought that’s where we could generate the most awareness,” UC Davis M.B.A. student and project lead Yuan Cheng wrote in a release in June. “We could eventually branch out into other things, but we tried to focus on one initial go-to-market product.”

But Cheng said he realizes this may be a limited business opportunity, because the goal is to reduce the population to the point where removal is nearly impossible — which would mean no more dog treats. 

But he noted that the process could be utilized in other bodies of water with similar issues around the globe. 

“It’s a business designed to put ourselves out of business,” he said.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled UC Davis M.B.A. student and project lead Yuan Cheng's name. It has been updated.


Follow us for more stories like this

CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you.  As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.

Donate Today  

    Related Stories

  • Emily Zentner/Capital Public Radio

    Trillions Of Invasive Shrimp Are Degrading Lake Tahoe’s Clarity. Now Researchers Are Trying To Stop Them.

    Thursday, August 15, 2019
    Mysis shrimp, an invasive species put in Lake Tahoe by humans, have gobbled up the tiny creatures that keep the lake clear. Can we control the shrimp population enough to fix the problem?
  • TahoeLand

    Lake Tahoe is a jewel in the Sierra Nevada, but climate change threatens everything we love about it. CapRadio’s Ezra David Romero takes us inside this petri dish for scientific research to see how Tahoe helps us confront the global climate crisis.

 lake tahoe

Ezra David Romero

Former Environment Reporter

Ezra David Romero is a former Environment Reporter at CapRadio.  Read Full Bio 

Sign up for ReCap and never miss the top stories

Delivered to your inbox every Friday.

 

Check out a sample ReCap newsletter.

Thanks for subscribing!

Thank you for signing up for the ReCap newsletter! We'll send you an email each Friday with the top stories from CapRadio.

Browse all newsletters

More Environment Stories

Kristin Lam / CapRadio

Disaster recovery center connects Sacramento-area winter storm victims to help

January 26, 2023

Andrew Nixon / CapRadio

Sierra Nevada forests have seen ‘unprecedented’ level of high-severity wildfires, study finds

January 27, 2023

Most Viewed

California coronavirus updates: Judge blocks California law preventing doctors from spreading COVID-19 misinformation

4 storylines to watch in this weekend's NFL conference championship games

10 new California laws that go into effect in 2023

Behind The I-80 Castle: A Drag-Racing, Beauty School Mogul’s Dream House

Still testing positive after day 10? How to decide when to end your COVID isolation

We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter

Most Viewed

California coronavirus updates: Judge blocks California law preventing doctors from spreading COVID-19 misinformation

4 storylines to watch in this weekend's NFL conference championship games

10 new California laws that go into effect in 2023

Behind The I-80 Castle: A Drag-Racing, Beauty School Mogul’s Dream House

Still testing positive after day 10? How to decide when to end your COVID isolation

Back to Top

  • CapRadio

    7055 Folsom Boulevard
    Sacramento, CA 95826-2625

    •  
      (916) 278-8900
    •  
      (877) 480-5900
    •  Contact / Feedback
    •  Submit a News Tip
  • About

    • Mission / Vision / Core Values
    • Stations & Coverage Map
    • Careers & Internships
    • Staff Directory
    • Board of Directors
    • Press
  • Listening Options

    • Mobile Apps
    • Smart Speakers
    • Podcasts & Shows
    • On-Air Schedules
    • Daily Playlist
    • Signal Status
  • Connect

    •  Facebook
    •  Twitter
    •  Instagram
    •  YouTube
  • Donate

  • Listen Live

  • Newsletters

CapRadio stations are licensed to California State University, Sacramento. © 2023, Capital Public Radio. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Website Feedback FCC Public Files: KXJZ KKTO KUOP KQNC KXPR KXSR KXJS. For assistance accessing our public files, please call 916-278-8900 or email us.