Sturgeon is a valuable cartilaginous scaly fish with delicious flesh, rich in nutrients and expensive. Caviar processed from sturgeon roe enjoys the reputation of "soft gold" and "black pearl", and the caviar of European sturgeon is considered to be the best of caviar, and can sell for a high price of 9600 US dollars / kg in overseas markets.
Sturgeon caviar
The reason why caviar is precious has a lot to do with the breeding cycle of sturgeon. As a typical sub-cold-water fish, sturgeon grow slowly and have slow gonadal development, which generally takes 8 to 10 years to mature. In the past, countries around the world mainly through the fishing of wild sturgeon to obtain fish eggs, the means are often simple and crude, direct caesarean section to retrieve eggs, this operation on the mother is very harmful, easy to lead to the death of adult sturgeon.
Giant sturgeon
Wild sturgeon is almost a treasure, and even the skin can be made into high-grade leather products. Stimulated by the consumer market, sturgeon fishing has become one of the industries with the highest return on investment, and the Mississippi River Basin, Siberia, and the Arctic Ocean Basin and caspian Sea region have also become "hunting grounds" for sturgeon.
In 1977, global caviar production reached 1,987 tons, a record high ever. However, overfishing and the construction of global water conservancy projects soon led to a sharp decline in the world's sturgeon resources, and production continued to decline. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 23 of the 27 species of sturgeon worldwide are endangered, accounting for 85%; 17 species of sturgeon have been included in the Red List of Threatened Species, and their survival rating has been assessed as "critically endangered".
Near-threaten Atlantic sturgeon
The decline of sturgeon stocks has had a huge impact on traditional industries that are highly dependent on fishing. Taking the Caspian Sea region as an example, it was once the region with the highest production of wild sturgeon caviar in the world, accounting for 83% of the global market share in 2003, which can not only supply the European and American markets, but also take into account Japan and South Korea.
Statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) show that the average annual sturgeon catch in the Caspian Sea region was 22,000 tonnes in the 1970s, but in 2008 it fell sharply to 373 tonnes. By 2012, the export of wild sturgeon caviar in the Caspian Sea was completely suspended, and the export quota was reduced to 0 – at this point, the once brilliant Caspian sturgeon industry officially declared "bankruptcy".
Chart of trends in the catch of wild sturgeon in the Caspian region from 1970 to 2000
Sturgeon is the flagship species of rivers and lakes and plays a vital role in maintaining ecological balance. Aware of the sturgeon's survival crisis, governments across the globe have stepped up their efforts to protect them, and the area of offshore protected areas has increased from 10.2 percent in 2015 to 17.4 percent in 2019.
However, hydroelectric dams still hinder the migration and reproduction of sturgeon, and illegal fishing for self-interest is difficult to completely stop. On the other hand, the global caviar market is still growing rapidly, and consumer demand continues to be strong, in this context, the best solution is to carry out artificial farming - both to reduce the pressure of wild sturgeon fishing pressure, but also to meet the needs of the high-end market.
Sturgeon's baby fish (9 days old)
There are 7 species of sturgeon distributed in China (the white sturgeon is extinct and not counted), namely the Dashi sturgeon and Shi's sturgeon in the Heilongjiang River Basin, the Chinese sturgeon and Dashi sturgeon in the Yangtze river and Pearl River Basins, and the Siberian sturgeon, naked-bellied sturgeon and small body sturgeon in Xinjiang. The wild individuals of these sturgeon are all nationally protected animals, and illegal fishing and sale by any organization or individual is strictly prohibited.
Since 2000, more than 30 countries and regions around the world have begun to enter the sturgeon farming industry, and the output growth rate is very amazing. In 2006, global sturgeon farming production was 19,000 tonnes, and in 2011 it rushed to 52,000 tonnes – and it was in this year that China accounted for 84.97% of the world's total production with 44,000 tonnes, ranking first in the world.
Farmed sturgeon
In terms of the caviar industry, the report card handed over by China is also quite amazing. Taking 2017 as an example, China's sturgeon caviar exports reached 93.9 tons (the global annual output of caviar is about 200 tons), with exports of 25.98 million US dollars, and the main export countries are the United States, Germany, Russia and France. Today, China is already the world's largest country in overseas market share, which can be called a "dark horse" in the world caviar industry.
However, the "going to sea" process of Chinese sturgeon has not been smooth. In the 1990s, when China's sturgeon farming industry was just getting started, there were two main ways to obtain sturgeon fry: the first was artificial breeding by catching wild sturgeon, and the other was the incubation of fertilized eggs of sturgeon imported from abroad.
Artificially hatched and bred sturgeon fry
Due to the lack of experience, the production of self-bred sturgeon in China was very low in the beginning, and the scale of culture was not large. The high risk of sturgeon farming, the large investment and the high technical requirements have led to the reluctance of many enterprises to breed. In 2004, China conquered the artificial breeding technology of sturgeon, the cost of fry was greatly reduced, and more and more enterprises saw the opportunity to overcome difficulties, making indelible contributions to China's sturgeon industry.
At this stage, the source of caviar has all become farmed sturgeon
Take the caviar industry in Qiandao Lake as an example. Qiandao Lake is located in Chun'an County, Zhejiang Province, is the last piece of clean water in the entire Yangtze River Delta region, the water quality is excellent, used to breed sturgeon is not a problem at all, the real need to be vigilant is the water temperature.
As a typical sub-cold-water fish, sturgeon can only live at a water temperature of 15 to 23 ° C, and in the hot summer, the water temperature of the upper layer of Qiandao Lake can even reach 30 ° C. The person in charge of Qiandao Lake Sturgeon Technology Co., Ltd. said that in the first 2 months of farming, there were many sturgeon deaths almost every day, which was unbearable.
Later, the technicians unexpectedly found that the depth of the water in Qiandao Lake below 15 meters is a low temperature of about 20 ° C, and the problem of sturgeon being "heated to death" can be solved by pumping the cold water in the depth to the surface. After 8 years of this, the sturgeon farmed in the Qiandao Lake area began to spawn gradually.
Sturgeon farming in Qiandao Lake
The production of caviar was solved, and the caviar of Qiandao Lake also successfully entered the European market. Due to its excellent quality, the caviar of Qiandao Lake has also been highly praised by the International Caviar Association, and Sturgeon Technology Co., Ltd. has also become the world's top caviar producer.
For a long time, the focus of China's caviar industry has been placed on overseas markets, and since 2010, the domestic market has gradually become active, and the "export to domestic sales" of caviar has also begun.
Just in May last year, domestic caviar landed on the domestic e-commerce platform and sold 880,000 sales in just 2 minutes, mainly by young people after the 90s. Compared with European and American consumers, domestic consumer groups prefer caviar with high freshness, so in the production process, merchants have reduced the salinity and shortened the delivery time, which has further enhanced the recognition of the caviar brand in the hearts of the people.
Artificially bred sturgeon fry
It is worth noting that with the continuous increase in aquaculture production, the market price of sturgeon is also declining year by year, from thousands of yuan / kg in the 90s to 20-30 yuan / kg in recent years. At the same time, the average price of international caviar is rising year by year, and the caviar imported from the United States in the 1990s was only 77 US dollars / kg, and in 2008 it soared to 350 US dollars / kg.
It can be seen that in terms of improving the added value of products, China's sturgeon farming enterprises are still promising. At present, most of the domestic farms of sturgeon only 1 to 2 years on the market, if the breeding time is increased to 8 years, then you can achieve product upgrades from sturgeon meat to caviar, there is still a lot of profit margin here.
In short, sturgeon has become a "trump card" in China's export of aquatic products, creating a considerable foreign exchange in overseas markets. The artificial cultivation of sturgeon not only protects the endangered wild sturgeon, but also promotes the consumption of the domestic market, brings more employment opportunities, and has economic, social and ecological benefits.
#Sturgeon ##保护野生动物 #