Bye-Bye Beluga

Roughly 18 months. That's how much time you have if you want to get a legal taste of Beluga Caviar in the United States. Effective yesterday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has extended its ban of beluga caviar from the Caspian Sea (instituted in September) to include the Black Sea basin as well, effectively banning the black stuff.

Why 18 months? Because that's how long the currently imported stock is expected to last.

But why the ban? Because in the post-Soviet era beluga sturgeon fishing has apparently gone out of control thanks to organized crime and the fish is now nearing extinction. The hope is that the ban will reduce beluga fishing trade and encourage better conservation (the U.S. currently consumes about 60% of the world's caviar). Until then, however, alternatives like the caviar from white sturgeon farm-raised in California (supposedly "wonderful") are being pushed. So in the meantime caviar aficionados had better stock up.

On a conservation note, having never been able to afford the stuff ourselves (not really wanting to either... fish eggs and all), three cheers for the Fish and Wildlife Service. Pushing this kind of ban on a luxury item through can't be easy, but is most probably really good for all parties in the long run.

Photograph of Beluga Caviar from epicurious.

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By Garth Johnston in Food on October 29, 2005 4:35 PM

Comments [rss]

Mig

My brother-in-law is a fish scientist in California working with those sturgeon. There's definitely a difference between the various caviars, but calling one superior is like calling a good red wine superior to a good white. There are fundamental differences that preclude direct comparison. Though I probably wouldn't buy it myself even if I could afford it, I've eaten a lot of caviar with a lot of Russians (for whom it's not a snob food), including the beluga. I'd be able to tell the difference in a blind test, but wouldn't say the expensive stuff is more enjoyable. (If you have black bread, cream cheese, and a frozen bottle of vodka or five to go with it, any caviar is great, even the red.)

Like most luxury goods it's the name and the price more than the intrinsic qualities. Ultra-high-end stereo equipment and mined diamonds are also in this category. Even if cheap California caviar were identical to beluga it would be snubbed by people for whom caviar is a class and culture item, which in the US is probably a majority of consumers.

caviar

If a post about a ban on Beluga caviar doesn't prove Gothamist is for yuppies, I don't know what will.

garth

Eating one or two cooked chicken eggs strikes me as somehow different then eating hundreds of raw fish eggs, but that's just me (and anywho the issue here is much more my budget and food comfort zone more than an ick factor). As for drinking water fishes have done the deed in, you are so right Monkeytown. I ONLY drink water that fishes have fucked in. Their copulation makes the water taste so much sweeter.

monkeytown

"not really wanting to either... fish eggs and all"

But you eat chicken eggs, I bet. And you probably drink water, even though fish fuck in it.