American Caviar No Longer Draws Sneers

In a small complex of nondescript concrete buildings, wedged between a pair of rice farms, thousands of white sturgeon slowly circle inside 75,000-gallon tanks. It’s harvest time, and the mature females are being readied for selection. Once sedated, the fish, some as big as 100 pounds, are hoisted onto a stretcher and given an ultrasound to evaluate their eggs for extraction. In a room resembling an operating theater, a single slit is made to their ripe bellies, revealing dark, pearly roe sacs. The prized eggs, better known as caviar, are carefully scooped out, weighed, sealed in plastic bags, and dispatched to a sterile, temperature-controlled room for processing. The rest of the fish is sold to restaurants.

It’s a long way from the Caspian Sea. Sterling Caviar’s aquaculture farm is located in the tiny town of Elverta (pop. 5,492) in California’s Sacramento Valley, an area once known for its endless stretches of cattle ranches. A holding of Stolt-Nielsen, a Norwegian group with a range of maritime businesses, Sterling expects output from the four sturgeon farms it operates in the area to reach 12 tons this year, generating about $10 million in revenue.