"Go ahead, Rove, you fascist. Try and ban me!"
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"Yeah, Rove. This means wahr!!"
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. Um, dipsticks, that's beluga not Begala.
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Posted on 11/25/2005 4:37:35 PM PST by grundle
Beluga ban boosts domestic caviar farming
By Laura Zuckerman Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:25 AM ET
HAGERMAN, Idaho (Reuters) - After more than a decade growing in the spring waters of a commercial fish farm in southern Idaho, five dozen white sturgeon are ready to give eggs that will be marketed to U.S. caviar connoisseurs.
The timing could hardly be better.
A recent U.S. ban on beluga caviar from the Caspian and Black seas has sparked a boom for U.S. fish farms, which are stepping in to provide gourmet stores and high-end restaurants the much-loved salted eggs, or roe, from sturgeon.
"The bottom line is, the source of caviar in the future will be fish farms," said Joel Van Eenennaam, sturgeon specialist with the department of animal science at the University of California, Davis.
The assessment follows a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service September ban on Caspian Sea beluga sturgeon products from Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in response to what the service says is their failure to protect the threatened species. The service last month also banned beluga imports from eastern European countries in the Black Sea basin.
Over the past two decades, a period of tumultuous change with the Soviet Union's collapse, the Caspian Sea sturgeon population has declined more than 90 percent, according to Caviar Emptor, a coalition of environmental groups.
The recent ban means that in the coming weeks record numbers of Americans gourmets may be trying the U.S. variety, which comes from white sturgeon, part of the same family but a different species from beluga in the Caspian Sea.
The period from November to New Year's Day accounts for roughly 80 percent of U.S. caviar sales.
The caviar from the farmed white sturgeon of Idaho and central California may not have the cachet of caviar harvested from beluga sturgeon. But its reputation is growing and it costs about a quarter of the price of beluga.
Mark Arnao, executive sous chef with Atelier, a four-star restaurant in New York's Ritz-Carlton hotel, said the caviar from farmed white sturgeon is good enough for the exclusive eatery. "The taste is really very good," he said.
TEN YEARS UNTIL PAYDAY
Raising white sturgeon is hard work.
The white-bellied sturgeon in rectangular cement ponds, known as raceways, can grow as large as 180 pounds (82 kg). Leo Ray, one of the state's three caviar producers, said moving the 5- to 7-foot (1.5- to 2.1-meter) fish from one raceway to another is an arduous task that involves a stretcher and a two-man team.
Ray expects to harvest about 150 pounds (68 kg) of precious gray-black eggs from his farm-raised white sturgeon.
This is the first year that Idaho's caviar will enter the market, and its entire production already has been hooked by Dale Sherrow, co-owner of Seattle Caviar, which specializes in retail caviar and champagne sales.
"We believe the future of this business is very strong," Sherrow said of white sturgeon farms. "People are going to want all caviar all the time."
With an historical appetite of more than 50 tons per year, the United States has been the world's leading importer of beluga caviar. America ranks third in overall caviar imports after the European Union and Switzerland, but experts say illegal beluga trafficking blurs the true picture.
Sherrow says white sturgeon caviar from Idaho and California farms is similar to osetra, the caviar from one kind of Russian sturgeon.
But home-grown caviar is also cheaper. Idaho's caviar sells for $50 per ounce compared to top retail prices for beluga at $200 -- where it is available. Osetra prices rose from about $100 per ounce last year to $175 this season.
It has taken Idaho's three caviar producers more than a decade to taste some of the rewards of their labors. The sex of white sturgeon, North America's largest freshwater fish, can not be determined for five years. It takes the females at least another five years to produce eggs.
Each 100-pound (45-kg) female produces an average of 80,000 eggs, enough for about 40 ounces (1,135 grams) of caviar.
"We'll start small and grow slow, but I think Idaho could very easily end up being the largest sturgeon-producing state in the nation," said Ray, owner of Fish Breeders of Idaho.
Idaho still trails California, where two companies in the Sacramento Valley produce more than 7 tons a year. Sterling Caviar is the domestic industry's big fish for farmed white sturgeon caviar.
The beluga bans means "sales this year that are more intense than ever," manager Peter Struffenegger said.
The international trade on beluga has been tightening since 1998 when 170 countries, including the United States, listed the ancient species under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species.
Hunting animals in the wild makes their populations get smaller.
Raising animals on private farms makes their populations get bigger.
It's just that I always hear environmentalists complaining about poaching, overhuntng, and overfishing. And I think that private farming offers a good solution to those problems.
Do the fish have to be sacrificed to get the eggs?
"Uh, not to be rude, but Horsesh*t. Are you brain dead?"
First, you're rude as hell.
And wild animals sure do conform to economic models.
Too many hunters = less animals.
Too many animals equals not enough hunters.
Try reading economics 101.
Man, a ten year payoff. It would take a heap of $$ to start one of these farms! It would be cool if you could get a hold of the same breed of sturgen as the wild ones in Russa. The biggest drawback to this is the fish does not survive the harvest.
Hunting animals in the wild makes their populations get smaller.
Raising animals on private farms makes their populations get bigger.
Only problem is that fish farmed salmon is a pale imitation of wild salmon. Expect the same for fish famed caviar
You're both right- and both wrong. Population assay and management can be used to increase the population. Other factors come into play as well. Controlled harvesting is one tool in management.
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"Yeah, Rove. This means wahr!!"
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. Um, dipsticks, that's beluga not Begala.
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-ccm
I too was curious. Your answer and more.
Marine Harvest is the world’s leading fish farming company - White sturgeon
http://www.marineharvest.com/species-products/white-sturgeon.html
As a pioneer in the farming of white sturgeon, Marine Harvest has been raising white sturgeon in the Sacramento Valley of California since the early 1980s.
Male sturgeon are harvested for their meat when they weigh about 10kg. Females that are selected for caviar production remain in the fish farm an additional 5–7 years before they mature and the caviar can be harvested.
White sturgeon meat is a nutritious delicacy and is available as whole fish, bullets, skin-on fillets, skinless fillets and hot and cold smoked sturgeon.
When the female begins to ovulate she releases hundreds of eggs to show she is ready. She is placed on a stretcher with fresh water running over her gills, and all the eggs are removed. The female can be used for spawning again in future years, but not for making caviar.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/307591/beluga_ban_boosts_domestic_caviar_farming/
Mark Arnao, executive sous chef with Atelier, a four-star restaurant in New York's Ritz-Carlton hotel, said the caviar from farmed white sturgeon is good enough for the exclusive eatery. "The taste is really very good," he said.
http://www.fishbreedersofidaho.com/idaho_sturgeon_caviar.html
Sturgeon can grow to hundreds of pounds, and some of the farm-raised fish weigh as much as 150 pounds. The eggs can make up more than 10 percent of the body weight. But despite their bulk, caring for the fish is a delicate process. Sturgeon have no bones, just cartilage. If handled too rough the spinal cord can be damaged
Harvesting the caviar kills the fish. The entire ovary is removed and carefully rubbed across a screen to separate the eggs from the membrane. The eggs are lightly salted and packed in jars or tins.
Caviar is ranked according to a hierarchy, with the eggs from three types of Caspian Sea sturgeon topping the list. The first, beluga caviar, is the rarest and the most expensive.
Next comes osetra caviar and then sevruga caviar. Caviar from sturgeon elsewhere in the world (including America) generally follows. Caviar from the white sturgeon is said to be most similar to osetra.
Initial tastes of our caviar have brought rave reviews, and because of the environmental control a farm offers Idaho caviar may someday compete with beluga.
Idaho Alligator (Click on small pictures for a closer look!)
Our alligators are raised and processed in Idaho under our daily supervision. The meat is processed in our processing plant to our strict standards.
Gator meat is an excellent choice for health-conscious consumers. It is high in protein and very low in calories, fat, saturated fat and cholesterol.
I don't know.
Everything involves tradeoffs.
Yes.
And that will be reflected in the price.
Tree farms take even longer.
How about this?
Raising animals on private farms for profit has never caused any species of animal to become endangered or go extinct.
If the ovary is removed how can they be useful to spawn again?
Thanks for telling me that they taste the same to you.
I'll bet you a box of jelly doughnuts and a voyager bateau that you can't tell the difference between "wild" salmon vs "tame" salmon on my grill.
Bait?
Judas goat?
The 2ed website says it is the end of the line.
What about the feral dairy cow?
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