San Francisco Bay Brand's brine shrimp are harvested from FDA certified solar evaporation ponds, used to make salt. The quite high nutrient levels of the San Francisco Bay are responsible for the algae blooms, which occur in the lower to medium salinity ponds. These algae (the primary producers of fatty acids) are "grazed" upon by the filter-feeding brine shrimp which consequently show a superior nutritional profile (measured in dry weight) compared to other sources of commercially available brine shrimp. Due to the relatively deep ponds we harvest the brine shrimp from, 30 years of experience in harvesting brine shrimp, and our proprietary brine shrimp cleaning steps, we succeed in keeping both the crude fiber and the ash content in our brine shrimp very low. We use liquid carbon dioxide to freeze our brine shrimp. Freezing brine shrimp correctly is important, as the brine shrimp's exoskeleton is extremely thin; hence, it is very easy to damage the brine shrimp if freezing takes place too slowly. Using liquid CO2 severely lowers the temperature at which freezing takes place. Compared to traditional freezing methods, freezing at -85F (-65C) improves product quality by the fast advancement of the freezing front and the formation of smaller ice crystals. Smaller ice crystals do not puncture the cell membranes as larger ice crystals do, so leeching of nutrients upon thawing is minimized.