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“Our caviar has held up very well against the competition, I’ll say that…”

Meet Jim Michaels, the Program Manager of Mote Marine Laboratory’s Siberian Sturgeon Program in Sarasota, FL. Jim has been working for over a decade on an eco-friendly and sustainable solution for growing farm-raised sturgeon in the United States. A solution to meet the growing demand for caviar around the world, and one that they hope will help take pressure off over-fishing the endangered wild sturgeon stocks in the Caspian Sea.

But, the recirculating aquaculture technology Mote is developing for their sturgeon program also serves a greater purpose. As Jim will tell you, it’s not just for the caviar. The hope with this program is to eventually drive down the cost of the technology so that this type of farming can be applied to other species of fish, and encourage more farmed seafood production within our borders.

Recirculating aquaculture systems clean and recycle the water, allowing aquaculture to use less water and be more environmentally friendly. Instead of bringing in large amounts of new water, recirculating systems can use special filtration to clean up the existing water.  At Mote, our unique recirculating systems allow us to re-use 100 percent of our saltwater and most of our fresh water. Recirculating systems at Mote allow us to raise fish far from any large body of water, and help us keep our fish farming “green.”

So enjoy my in-depth educational piece on the future of farmed seafood. If any of you are interested in trying Mote’s Siberian sturgeon or caviar, you can find a list of purveyors from NYC, FL and the West Coast on their website. The fact that many well-known caviar houses, like Petrossian, have agreed to sell their product says a lot about the taste and quality. I, for one, can vouch for it myself.

And one last note, Mote is ALWAYS looking for new seafood markets and restaurants to sell their farm-raised sturgeon to. So be sure to contact them if you or if anyone you know are interested.

Cooking ideas and recipes to come…

Thanks for watching food. curated.! Happy eating!