<P> The high salinity in parts of the lake makes them uninhabitable for all but a few species, including brine shrimp, brine flies, and several forms of algae . The brine flies have an estimated population of over one hundred billion and serve as the main source of food for many of the birds which migrate to the lake . However, the fresh - and salt - water wetlands along the eastern and northern edges of the Great Salt Lake provide critical habitat for millions of migratory shorebirds and waterfowl in western North America . These marshes account for approximately 75% of the wetlands in Utah . Some of the birds that depend on these marshes include: Wilson's phalarope, red - necked phalarope, American avocet, black - necked stilt, marbled godwit, snowy plover, western sandpiper, long - billed dowitcher, tundra swan, American white pelican, white - faced ibis, California gull, eared grebe, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, plus large populations of various ducks and geese . </P> <P> There are twenty - seven private duck clubs, seven state waterfowl management areas, and a large federal bird refuge on the Great Salt Lake's shores . Wetland / wildlife management areas include the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge; Gillmor Sanctuary; Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve; Salt Creek, Public Shooting Grounds, Harold Crane, Locomotive Springs, Ogden Bay, Timpie Springs, and Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Areas . </P> <P> Several islands in the lake provide critical nesting areas for various birds . Access to Hat, Gunnison, and Cub islands is strictly limited by the State of Utah in an effort to protect nesting colonies of American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). The islands within the Great Salt Lake also provide habitat for lizard and mammalian wildlife and a variety of plant species . Some species may have been extirpated from the islands . For example, a number of explorers who visited the area in the mid-1800s (e.g. Emmanuel Domenech, Howard Stansbury, Jules Rémy) noted an abundance of yellow - flowered "onions" on several of the islands, which they identified as Calochortus luteus . This species today occurs only in California, however, at that time the name C. luteus was applied to plants that later were named C. nuttallii A yellow - flowered Calochortus was first named as a variety of C. nuttallii but was later separated into a new species C. aureus . This species occurs in Utah today, though apparently no longer on the islands of the Great Salt Lake . </P> <P> Because of the Great Salt Lake's high salinity, it has few fish, but they do occur in Bear River Bay and Farmington Bay when spring runoff brings fresh water into the lake . A few aquatic animals live in the lake's main basin, including centimeter - long brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana). Their tiny, hard - walled eggs or cysts (diameter about 200 micrometers) are harvested in quantity during the fall and early winter . They are fed to prawns in Asia, sold as novelty "Sea - Monkeys," sold either live or dehydrated in pet stores as a fish food, and used in testing of toxins, drugs, and other chemicals . There are also two species of brine fly as well as protozoa, rotifers, bacteria and algae . </P>

What type of fish live in the great salt lake