saw this link on MSN...
pretty interesting...
Source : http://www.slate.com/id/2127491
How Do They Harvest Caviar?
They suck it through a straw.
By Daniel Engber
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005, at 6:07 PM ET
Mmm, fish eggs
As of last Friday, the United States no longer permits the
importation of fancy beluga caviar from the Caspian Sea. The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service announced the ban as part of an effort to
protect endangered sturgeon near Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan,
Russia, and Turkmenistan. Do sturgeon die when fishermen take their
eggs?
Yep. Almost all caviar is harvested from dead fish. Fishermen on
the Caspian wait until the mature female sturgeon (which are at
least 10 years old) are ready to migrate upstream and lay their
eggs. Once caught, the sturgeon will be transferred to a large
boat, where workers slit her open and remove her eggs. The caviar
is cleaned to prevent spoilage and then packed up; the rest of the
fish is sold for flesh.
Why can't the fishermen postpone the harvest until the sturgeon
lays her eggs? First of all, the eggs would be almost impossible to
gather. A female that's ready to spawn might be swollen with pounds
of black caviar clumped together on her ovaries. Once she releases
these eggs into the water, they're much harder to collect, clean,
and package.
Second, there's no market for ovulated or fertilized fish eggs.
When the female begins to spawn, the exterior of her eggs
deteriorates to allow for the penetration of sperm. Even if
fishermen were able to sweep up those ovulated eggs, they wouldn't
be able to sell them: An egg with a broken-down lining will
eventually leak and turn to mush. (The quality of caviar depends on
its firmness, taste, color, and size.)
Fish farmers who raise sturgeon for caviar sometimes use a surgical
procedure to remove eggs from a female without killing her. To
foster reproduction in captivity, aquaculturists will induce
ovulation in a female with hormone injections and then make a small
incision in her abdomen. Eggs that have already detached from the
ovaries can be scooped out with a plastic spoon or squeezed out
into a bowl.
Most farmers use this technique only to obtain eggs for
insemination, but some Russians do live-harvest eggs for food. In
some cases, a farmer might perform a Caesarean on a fish that
hadn't ovulated. He could cut out some but not all of her eggs
before sewing up the fish and putting her back in the water. A
farmer might also induce ovulation, squeeze out the loose eggs, and
then use a novel process to restore the integrity of their outer
coverings.
Caviar producers who harvest from dead animals can still use
surgical techniques to improve their yield. Some fisheries will
test the eggs of a mature female before killing her. First, an
incision is made in her abdomen and then a small tube is inserted.
The farmer then puts his mouth on the tube and sucks out a small
quantity of eggs for examination. If they're the right color and
consistency, he'll kill the animal and harvest the caviar. If
they're too "ripe"if the fish has begun to break them down for
reabsorptionhe'll put her back in the water and wait until her
next reproductive cycle.
