As sturgeon wane, caviar poaching in the Ozarks

The American paddlefish, a relative of the sturgeon that looks like a prehistoric marine reptile, is the prey in the insatiable international market for caviar, writes Michelle Nijhuis. She describes a poaching frenzy on the Osage River in central Missouri, where hundreds of pounds of roe were sold to racketeers who labeled it as Russian caviar worth $300 an ounce. The paddlefish is the latest species to be decimated to satisfy the carving for caviar.

“The venerable and majestically odd sturgeon family is disappearing, and the paddlefish is poised to follow it,” says Nijhuis. The fish grow slowly so it is easy to quickly over-fish them. There is a nascent industry in farming white sturgeon for caviar in California and the the Pacific Northwest. There is a possibility of harvesting the eggs without killing the fish. “Whatever it’s source, the lure of caviar is undeniable – and enduring,” says the story online at Medium and produced in partnership with the Food and Environment Reporting Network. There is a sidebar at FERN on sustainable paddlefish roe.

Exit mobile version