I had no idea Sacramento was a caviar center…yum…
Ancient fish -- modern threats
Area firm's farm-raised sturgeon may rescue dwindling stock that's falling prey to caviar black market.
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, March 10, 2007
Joe Melendez makes his living eating the eggs of one of the oldest fish in North America.
Each day, in a bland metal building not far from Sacramento International Airport, Melendez dons a lab coat and wields a tiny plastic spoon for Sterling Caviar, America's largest sturgeon farming enterprise.
Inside a chilled clean room, he works through mounds of pearly, gray-green eggs. Each pile comes from a different female California white sturgeon that has spent its life in Sterling's ponds.
Melendez is Sterling's chief taster. He decides whether these eggs will satisfy high-rollers and gourmets around the world.
For those who crave it, the caviar experience justifies a luxury price. That demand also drives a caviar black market that threatens wild sturgeon almost everywhere they swim, from the Sacramento River to the Caspian Sea.
