Rio Frio gets recognized in sustainable sturgeon farming
March 30, 2009
Rio Frio, the Andalusian sturgeon farm (Acipenser nacarii), got certified by local authorities already some time back. It is today the only certified sturgeon farm regarding ecological agriculture.
Here I pass a Youtube video.
Snail caviar
March 17, 2009
And who’s to blame? The french, of course!
While the classic wild caviar due to poaching, overfishing and pollution of the Caspian Sea, is getting harder to find each day, alternatives show up. Of course, farmed caviar (from sturgeon roe) being the best ‘substitute’ for the wild thing (and in some farms even surpassing the quality of wild!). Besides farmed caviar there is today a wide offer of other fish eggs that try to get into the luxury dimension. Tobiko, Tarama, Bottarga, Bowin, Lobsviar (roe from Lobster), etc. seem to get their share – altough not on the top of the quality and price pyramid.
Now, the one that really gets tickling my curiousity are the roe from snails – or better ’escargots’ (Hélix Aspera Maxima).
The french company De Jaegers after a period of extensive research has a stock of about 60’000 snails (= 200kg. for the worldmarket). These slippery little bastards (for the ones who saw Pretty Woman) seem to produce some very tasty, pink-white looking eggs. Ok, the truth to be told, I doubt that the above image shows the roe and not some shiny tinny plastic balls…
The snails lay about 100 eggs once a year, which gives aprox. 4gramms of snail caviar. So, about 260 snails are needed to get to 1kg. (!!!).
De Jaeger promises a ‘sensation of a walk in the forest after the rain, mushrooms and oak leaf flavours, the scent of humid moss peat’. And the price range reflects this effort and promise. A 250grm. tin goes over the counter for about 1’000USD. Well, that’s the deal if you want to stay in your cozy home but walk in the forest at the same time.
Related article on luxuo.com
Frutigen: Swiss caviar
December 5, 2008
I wrote about this project in some previous posts already. But as a Swiss TV channel was airing recently a short sequence about this undertaking I want to share this with my fellow readers.
The animation of the plant looks indeed promising. I hope so, with an investment of aprox. 30Mio. CHF. It shows a glimpse of the future of Swiss caviar. According to the video the full annual caviar production volume will be around 3 tons. I admit that I am not sad at all that Frutigen is still many years away until it reaches any industrial scale. But somehow I can’t wait and am very curious about its caviar. I sure will taste and judge it when the day comes.
Snake and sturgeons
November 14, 2008
The other day I was on the way to the floating ponds in the middle of the river (Rio Negro), where some of our partner’s sturgeons spend one great part of their lifecycle. My objective was to shoot some videos. By coincidence suddenly a water snake appeared while I was shooting.
As us, the snake was heading for the ponds too! But fortunately this specie is not dangerous and definitely to small to strangle any of our precious sturgeons. It shows once again of how natural this reserve really is!
Unfortunately the video is too heavy to be shown here. Maybe I can compress it a little and try again. For now I can only show you a print screen of this beauty. Sorry. Hope to show more soon!
Aquafarming: Master switch to solve all the problems? (2nd part)
November 2, 2008
It’s all about remote control! Previously I posted an article about remote controlled fish cages and it’s challenges.
Now, let’s climb up a level (or two) and raise the question: How do you feed fish (meant for human consumption) that aren’t in a tank but in the open ocean? Obviously, this sounds silly at first glance. But researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole are working on what they hope is an even better solution to conventional aquafarming in general and to the fancy machinery (‘remote controlled fish cages’) posted before. It’s about a new method and the magic word behind it is: acoustic ranching.
It’s about how to train fish to respond to a kind of dinner bell after being let out into the wild open sea. It’s about conditioning. It’s about Pavlov’s dogs. Mr. Scott Lindell is a scientist, who has been training the fish to associate the sound with food – making it a hell easier for men to harvest them. Or as Mr. Lindell puts it: “it’s like remote controlled fish!”
A ‘sound stimuli’ is a low-pitched hum, virtually inaudible to the human ear, but clear as a – well, dinner bell to the fish. Current tests are undergoing right now. It involves a 10 meter wide mesh-covered structure, which is secured to the seabed of Buzzard’s Bay. It’s the temporary home of about four thousand black sea bass. When the research team first began the experiment, the fish didn’t associate the tone with food. But they’ve since caught on. Today, when these big kids play the tone, the fishes come in hordes. At least within this experimental surrounding it seems to work. But what about in the real world?
During the month of October the research team will open the dome to let the fish out to swim in open water. Their hope lies on the memory of these black sea bass, that when they will emit the tone the fish return to feed. If at least half of the four thousand sea bass return, they’ll deem the project a success.
The experiment should finish sometime in late October – now. Let’s hope for a very positive conclusion. Let’s hope for the master switch to solve all the problems aquafarming – today’s best way for human fish consumption – fights today. And maybe a better way to rescue/repopulate sturgeon stocks worldwide!
Stay tuned for more!
Related articles:
- WBUR.org
- WCAI FM
- Spiegel.de (german article)
Aquafarming: Master switch to solve all the problems?
October 31, 2008
Remote controlled aquafarms?
As human population goes up, fish consumption follows the trend. One gets fish one of two ways these days: either by dragging a net throgh 93% of the ocean, which is what is happening now, or through aquafarming. Conventional fishing is no bridge to the future, as it will wipe out all commercial fish stocks by 2050. Farming on the other hand offers a great (and only) way to protect the wild stocks – without having to abstain from eating fish. Today up to 40% of worldwide fish consumption derives from aquafarms.
Unfortunately, fish farming has its environmental problems too. Fish waste could degrade seabeds, high concentration of fishes makes them more susceptible to deseases and weather storms challenge anchoring cages. But the main problem lies in the fish pellets, which is a by product of conventional (human) fishing. Therefore, aquafarming relies on the very same resource (fish stocks in the open sea) that it actually wants to protect.
This is where scientist Cliff Goudey from the MIT steps in. He is researching in a remote controlled fish cage. Yes, that’s right. His vision: in the future will exist hundreds and thousands of floating fish cages that are equipped with a diesel engine, GPS receivers and route-planning software, so that the fish farmer can keep track of his fishes and perhaps programm the fish cage in a way, so that it steers itself back to shore when it is time for harvesting. Until then theses cages would never stay in one place long enough to damage local wildlife and could drift with storm waves to avoid feeling their full force.
The first tests of the wandering cages have just taken place in Puerto Rico. But before this project can set sail there are some challenges that needs to be solved, like communication with and control over the cages from big distances, providing protection of the fishes (‘kidnapping’), energy supply (diesel engines run out too) and ecological problems (diesel pollutes the sea). Solar technology could be a solution to the energy supply issue. But what happens when a storm arrives? Without the sun being able to load the solar cells, the sea would literally ‘kidnap’ its very own fruits…
Related articles/videos:
- Spiegel.de (German article)
- Youtube
Caviar Production
September 29, 2008
Follow a short introduction into the production process of caviar. It’s very impressive!
Altough the people in the video dont seem to follow best practices of hygienic control (note that there are no sluices to seperate the different processes and nobody is wearing masks to prevent bacterial contamination).
And a tip regarding tin sizes: the bigger the tins, the more liquid accumulates on the bottom (‘swimming caviar’). For me the best sizes are 125gr. and 250gr. of unrepackaged tins!
(Video comes in french. So, brush up!)
Sturgeon breeding programm at the University of Maryland
September 24, 2008
An interesting project from the University of Maryland about boosting the population of the atlantic sturgeon in the US. According to a source, it might face its extinction within the next 22 years. It also shows the reproduction and anatomic description of the atlantic sturgeon.
But dont test the words of the professor and put the fish out of the tank for an hour and see if he really survives…
Rare Sturgeon Key to Breeding Program on Youtube
Frutigen – Caviar from the Swiss Alps
September 23, 2008
Can farmed caviar deliver stable quality?
September 12, 2008
When I visited the project in April 2007 I was amazed by the spirit and vision of this project. But back then it was a mere spirit because of the couple of little tanks and the mayor construction sight one could see.
At first glance I liked the idea of this, using warm water in order to breed sturgeons. But on the second thought, however, this raises some questions regarding its main objective. Is it about minimizing collateral damage by not having to cool down the warm water anymore, or is it about creating high quality caviar?
Sure is, caviarists spend money over quality.
Guaranteeing 20 degrees of water temperature all year round may be interesting for the investors. Temperatures at this level speeds up the growth of the sturgeons. That’s true. And somebody wants to be sure to get his 30Mio. CHF investment back in time.
Sturgeons interest might not always coincide with the connoisseurs interest who enjoy the complex taste that caviar can reach under the right conditions.
Sturgeons have a similarity with pinot noir grapes: they prefer high temperature ranges. Their ’fight’ against nature (temperatures) is actually their nature. They need ‘rough’ winters so that they can not only grow but also mature. A complex taste of caviar requests complex, challenging life conditions for the females.
That is why the only goal of sturgeon breeders around the world should be to imitate their natural habitats as good and profound as possible – if they seek for high quality caviar.
20 degrees during 12 months might give you a stable quality – sure. But it might also have a boring, undistinctive taste. But than again, a mass product for the masses (’Coop’) with a price tag of 2000CHF per kilo seems to be appropriate all the way.
For all the others, get the real thing.
In any case, I wish my best luck for this visionary undertaking.
Related articles:
The Tropenhaus Frutigen Project
Article on World Radio Switzerland