for Ranching
Ranching is the term used for fish farming aimed at restocking wild fish stocks. The technique involves raising juvenile fish in nurseries, then releasing them into the wild, and harvesting them later in life in specific catchment areas. In Europe, ranching is mainly used for sturgeon.
Caviar is extremely rare. To get a better understanding for how rare it truly is, global caviar production is 200 times less than that of salmon roe. Why is that? Because caviar requires time and patience. Sturgeon need to be raised and fed for more than 6 years before the females are mature enough to start producing eggs. The specific age at which this occurs is different for each species: Baerii take roughly 7 years before producing their first eggs, while Osetra take 12 years, and Beluga take 20. But that’s not all! The eggs then need to be checked to make sure they are of good enough quality, carefully extracted from the female’s egg sac, gently salted by hand so as not to alter the flavour, then left to successfully age for 3 to 6 months.
A whole book of records could be devoted to caviar with the countless tales told by fishermen. The greatest achievement probably comes from Russia, off the coast near Astrakhan in 1908, when a giant Beluga was caught. Legend has it that 11 men had to stand in a line to properly measure the true size of the beast from tip to tail. According to accounts, it contained 450kg of caviar! In 1921, Iran reached its own record with a Beluga caught in the Caspian Sea measuring 6m in length and 1.5 tonne. Reportedly 170 years old, it produced 375kg of caviar. Lastly, in 1993, China joined the race with a 5.2 meter long Kaluga caught in the Amur River. Some say it was the size of a minibus.
The fortifying powers of caviar have long been known. In Russia, it was prescribed to convalescent patients. Even the son of Tsar Nicholas II had to follow a regimen of caviar; young Alexei, diagnosed with haemophilia and in very poor health, had to take a spoonful of caviar every morning. Adverse to the taste of fish, his butler had to come up with a nifty solution: caviar and mashed banana on toast for breakfast!
Restocking is where juvenile fish, known as fry or fingerlings, are released into the wild to boost fish populations. Until the 17th century, this was achieved by taking the surplus catch from one area and releasing it elsewhere. Today, the process is used to boost sturgeon populations. In fish farms, hatchery supervisors oversee the spawning, hatching, and rearing of new-born fish in nurseries found in ponds, pools, cages, etc.
Sturgeon roe are found in the ovaries of females inside an egg sac. Containing anywhere between 100,000 and 1 million eggs, it makes up for about 15% of the fish’s overall mass (25% for Beluga). This egg sac contains the very same eggs that are used to make caviar.