More Restrictions for Caviar Production

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Sep 3rd 2005 at 10:00AM

More crackdowns on caviar production on the U.S. may make North American caviar increasingly rare. Wildlife regulatory agencies in Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky are advocating for new regulations to limit the size of the sturgeon catch. The shovelnose sturgeon is on its way to possibly becoming endangered. Steve Eder from the Missouri Department of Conservation says that every sturgeon population in the world has ended up deleted because of the quest for caviar. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declared the beluga sturgeon a threatened species. In Missouri, commercial fishermen caught an average of 5,000 pounds of sturgeon annually from 1945 through the 1990s. In the last five years that number has risen to an average of 34,500 pounds a year. Meanwhile in Illinois, commercial fishermen catch more than 65,000 pounds of shovelnose sturgeon each year. Missouri now charges $500 for a sturgeon fishing permit. It looks like more and more farmed caviar might be the best option for future sustainability.

Filed under: Dining

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