Palouse scientists have caviar dreams

PULLMAN — Scientists at Washington State University and neighboring University of Idaho in Moscow are studying less invasive ways of determining whether a sturgeon's eggs are ready to be harvested and sold as coveted caviar.

Their efforts are part of work aimed to boost American production and take pressure off Russian beluga sturgeon, whose numbers have been decimated by poaching. In 2005, the United States suspended imports of the beluga sturgeon's caviar and meat from the Black and Caspian seas until countries there can prove they have adequate conservation methods in place.

A sturgeon must be about 10 years old before its eggs can be harvested. Currently, fish farmers in Idaho say the only way maturity can be determined is through a biopsy that requires taking a fish from the water, turning it belly-up in a sling, making an incision and removing a small sample of eggs. Then the eggs must be analyzed in a lab.

The two inland schools located on the Palouse are investigating four new methods, including using blood and urine samples and scans with sound or light to look inside the fish.

"I am not certain that it will stem the black-market trade," WSU food-science professor Barbara Rasco told the Lewiston Tribune, of efforts to boost domestic caviar production. "But hopefully it would take some pressure off of the Caspian Sea fishery as people become familiar with caviar products that are just as good, if not better, than those [from Europe and Asia], and from a sustainable resource."

Idaho, already the nation's leading producer of farm-raised rainbow trout, has seen interest in sturgeon production increase in recent years, as have other caviar-producing states, including California.

Leo Ray, the owner of Fish Breeders of Idaho in Hagerman, produces about 300 pounds of caviar annually from the white sturgeon that he raises in spring water that pushes to the Earth's surface above the Snake River. Each of his female sturgeons produces about 7 pounds of caviar, but they must be killed to harvest the eggs.

An ounce of Ray's white-sturgeon caviar runs about $40, while beluga caviar can cost as much as $250 per ounce.

Ray said the research by WSU and the University of Idaho into more efficient ways of determining egg maturity will pay off for the region's economy.

He's planning on boosting his own production of caviar to several tons over the next few years and hopes to take advantage of new methods to boost his profits.

"This work will generate enough information on other subjects regarding the fish to make it worthwhile research," Ray said.