Seafood Watch Seafood Report U.S. Farmed Sturgeon White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii) Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedti) Sevruga sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) Beluga sturgeon (Huso huso) White sturgeon, Illustration © Monterey Bay Aquarium January 27, 2007 Zdravka Tzankova Independent Consultant About Seafood Watch® and the Seafood Reports Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch® program evaluates the ecological sustainability of wild-caught and farmed seafood commonly found in the United States marketplace. Seafood Watch® defines sustainable seafood as originating from sources, whether wild-caught or farmed, which can maintain or increase production in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or function of affected ecosystems. Seafood Watch® makes its science-based recommendations available to the public in the form of regional pocket guides that can be downloaded from the Internet (seafoodwatch.org) or obtained from the Seafood Watch® program by emailing [email protected]. The program’s goals are to raise awareness of important ocean conservation issues and empower seafood consumers and businesses to make choices for healthy oceans. Each sustainability recommendation on the regional pocket guides is supported by a Seafood Report. Each report synthesizes and analyzes the most current ecological, fisheries and ecosystem science on a species, then evaluates this information against the program’s conservation ethic to arrive at a recommendation of “Best Choices”, “Good Alternatives” or “Avoid”. The detailed evaluation methodology is available upon request. In producing the Seafood Reports, Seafood Watch® seeks out research published in academic, peer-reviewed journals whenever possible. Other sources of information include government technical publications, fishery management plans and supporting documents, and other scientific reviews of ecological sustainability. Seafood Watch® Research Analysts also communicate regularly with ecologists, fisheries and aquaculture scientists, and members of industry and conservation organizations when evaluating fisheries and aquaculture practices. Capture fisheries and aquaculture practices are highly dynamic; as the scientific information on each species changes, Seafood Watch’s sustainability recommendations and the underlying Seafood Reports will be updated to reflect these changes. Parties interested in capture fisheries, aquaculture practices and the sustainability of ocean ecosystems are welcome to use Seafood Reports in any way they find useful. For more information about Seafood Watch® and Seafood Reports, please contact the Seafood Watch® program at Monterey Bay Aquarium by calling (831) 647-6873 or emailing [email protected]. Disclaimer Seafood Watch® strives to have all Seafood Reports reviewed for accuracy and completeness by external scientists with expertise in ecology, fisheries science and aquaculture. Scientific review, however, does not constitute an endorsement of the Seafood Watch® program or its recommendations on the part of the reviewing scientists. Seafood Watch® is solely responsible for the conclusions reached in this report. Seafood Watch® and Seafood Reports are made possible through a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. 2 Table of Contents I. Executive Summary………………………………………………………………..4 II. Introduction………………………………………………………………..............7 III. Analysis of Seafood Watch® Sustainability Criteria for Farmed Species Criterion 1: Use of Marine Resources…………………………………………18 Criterion 2: Risk of Escaped Fish to Wild Stocks……………………………..23 Criterion 3: Risk of Disease and Parasite Transfer to Wild Stocks……………27 Criterion 4: Risk of Pollution and Habitat Effects……………………………..32 Criterion 5: Effectiveness of the Management Regime………………………..34 IV. Overall Recommendation and Seafood Evaluation…………………….................38 V. References…………………………………………………………………………40 3 Executive Summary Sturgeons (order Acipenseriformes, family Acipenseridae) are among the oldest living vertebrates, with fossil records dating back more than 150 million years. All 26 species of sturgeon are found exclusively in the Northern hemisphere. All sturgeons are depleted worldwide, with several sturgeon species currently threatened with extinction. This is the result of over a century of exposure to the combined pressures of overfishing and environmental degradation. Much of the former has been driven by the consistently high value of caviar, which remains among the most expensive of fishery products. The latter has included the accumulation of pollutants in sediments, as well as the damming of rivers and restriction of water flows, both of which have worked to impede reproduction and migration. Generally, it is the depletion of wild sturgeon stocks that created the motivation for artificial propagation and rearing of sturgeon. Artificial reproduction was initially pursued with the goal of supplementing wild stocks and augmenting sturgeon fisheries. Increasingly, commercial sturgeon culture is pursued as a method of direct caviar production, with farmed caviar emerging as an increasingly valued supplement and substitute for wild caviar, whose production and supply are declining with the continuing decline of wild sturgeon populations and in spite of the fact that many such populations, including those in the Caspian, are maintained through hatchery programs. In spite of the advances in knowledge of sturgeon embryology, reproductive biology, and hatchery techniques that occurred in the process of developing and applying re-stocking and augmentation programs, as late as the early 1980s it was still unclear whether sturgeon can be successfully adapted to commercial grow-out systems (Doroshov, 1985). This all changed with the successful closing of the life cycle for white sturgeon in captivity, attained in California in the early 1980s as a result of the research and experimental work of several UC Davis scientists working under the research leadership of Dr. Serge Doroshov and in collaboration with interested aquaculturists. Later followed by closing the life cycles in captivity for several other sturgeon species, this development effectively enabled the expansion of sturgeon farming for meat and caviar beyond the small, experimental scale on which it was taking place and into the types of commercial production that are described and evaluated in this report. In the U.S., five species of sturgeon – white, Siberian, Russian, beluga, and stellate - are currently farmed in two types of culture systems – tanks and raceways, with most tank systems relying on ground water, while raceways rely primarily on spring water and to a limited extent on stream water. Many tank-based facilities apply various degrees of recirculation before discharging their water, and some farms practice almost complete recirculation with minimal effluent. In the case of California operations, much of the effluent discharged by some of the larger facilities goes to wetlands and agricultural irrigation. The size of farming operations as well as the production volumes of various sturgeon culture companies vary considerably, with two of California’s three sturgeon culture operations currently considered the largest in the U.S. It is, however, important to note that sturgeon culture operations, even the largest of which currently produce no more than several tons of caviar and several hundred tons of sturgeon meat 4 annually, remain small in comparison to most other types of aquaculture operations, for example those focusing on the production of trout, tilapia, or catfish. Commercial U.S. culture of sturgeon for meat and caviar is currently taking place in three states – California, Idaho, and Florida, with others, such as Hawaii and Georgia, also poised for the development of sturgeon aquaculture. U.S sturgeon culture is currently dominated by the production of white sturgeon. Most of this is accounted for by three tank-based California operations. Raceway-based Idaho sturgeon culture operations are also exclusively focused on the production of native strains of white sturgeon, although their current scale and production capacity is nowhere near those of California operations, which, albeit having changed ownership several times over the past few decades, are the oldest sturgeon aquaculture facilities in the U.S. Although white sturgeon currently dominates U.S. meat and caviar production, the Florida operations, which culture four European species and which have just begun their caviar harvest, are reportedly expected to quickly catch up to the combined production volumes of California and Idaho operations. It is reported that many aquaculturists and entrepreneurs are currently looking to enter sturgeon culture in order to take advantage of the growing interest in, and market for farmed sturgeon caviar. With farmed caviar having considerable potential to alleviate the pressures on wild sturgeon, this situation calls for ongoing scrutiny of the nature of sturgeon aquaculture practices and their environmental impacts to make sure that the promising conservation potential of sturgeon aquaculture is indeed being realized. Over-all, U.S. farmed sturgeon and caviar rank as a “Good Alternative” according to Seafood Watch® criteria. Given current production methods, effluents pose no environmental or ecological concern. There are ecological risks associated with farmed fish escapes where non- native sturgeon species are the focus of commercial production. However, the nature of current containment practices and the reported record of total escape prevention for the Florida facilities that presently culture non-native sturgeons suggest currently low exposure for wild sturgeon stocks to the ecological risks of farmed fish escapes. There is some concern that disease outbreaks in farmed populations may affect wild fish populations, although there is presently no evidence that such effects have actually occurred. The disease transmission concern is essentially due to sturgeon farm releases of wastewater which may contain disease-causing organisms. The risks of disease transfer from farmed to wild sturgeon have consequently been ranked as “Moderate.” Current evidence also suggests that U.S. sturgeon culture operations, across the three states where they are located, are managed effectively in regulatory terms. The biggest ecological concern associated with sturgeon aquaculture as currently practiced remains its fairly high use of marine resources in the form of feed. Although the amount of fishmeal and fish oil used in sturgeon feed, as well as the feed conversion ratios of cultured sturgeon may decrease in the future, their current levels warranted a red, or “Extensive use of marine resources” ranking at the present time. 5 Table of Sustainability Ranks Conservation Concern Sustainability criteria Low Moderate High Critical Use of marine resources √ Risk of escapes to wild √ stocks Risk of disease and parasite transfer to wild √ stocks Risk of pollution and √ habitat effects Effectiveness of √ management Overall Seafood Recommendation for U.S. Farmed Sturgeon and Caviar Best Choices Good Alternative Avoid 6 Introduction First initiated in California in the mid-1980s, the intensive commercial farming of sturgeon for caviar and meat still represents a small segment of U.S aquaculture when it comes to net production volumes or the number and size of production facilities. Sturgeon culture, however, is distinct with the high value of its products. Indeed, it is unique when it comes to the nature and price of its key target – caviar. Farmed-origin caviar, which now generally retails between $ 104 and $ 237 per 50 grams (depending on quality) is still somewhat cheaper than the most prestigious varieties of wild caviar (sterlingcaviar.com; tsarnicoulai.com; markyscaviar.com; petrossian.com; caviar.com), but it is among the highest value aquaculture products on the market today.1 Furthermore, the highest quality farmed caviar – such as some Siberian sturgeon caviar from Europe and some white sturgeon caviar produced in California - is increasingly approximating the prices – as well as status - of the most highly valued wild varieties, and even surpassing the prices for some wild sevruga and osetra. The intensive commercial culture of sturgeon - to be distinguished from activities such as captive reproduction and stocking of fingerlings to augment sturgeon fisheries, is also distinct in terms of the length of the production process and the complexity of some of its individual stages. The latter notwithstanding, the significance of sturgeon aquaculture as a source of caviar for the world market has been growing in the past decade – a trend that is the combined result of several developments: ecological and policy developments reducing the world supply of wild caviar, advances in intensive sturgeon culture both in the U.S. and in a number of European countries, and gradual shifts in the preferences of high-end consumers and purveyors from an exclusive focus on wild caviar varieties to gradual and currently even enthusiastic acceptance of farmed- origin caviars. The key ecological dynamic responsible for the growing market status of farmed-origin caviar as well as for the increasing interest in intensive sturgeon culture is the ongoing and recently accelerating decline of most wild sturgeon populations, especially Caspian populations of beluga, stellate (sevruga), and Russian (osetra) sturgeons, which have long supplied the majority of caviar for the world market (Raymakers, 2002; Williamson, 2003). These declines are reflected in unprecedented new lows in world sturgeon catches, which reached 5, 723 tons in 1995 and 3, 715 tons in 1998 (Raymakers, 2002) after averaging around 17, 500 tons during the late 1940s and fluctuating between 13, 500 and 31, 400 tons in the 1960s and 1970s (Raymakers and Hoover, 2002). The decline of wild sturgeon populations has also affected the market availability for wild varieties of caviar by prompting several national and international bans on caviar trade. The bans 1 High quality bluefin tunas produced in Australian, Mexican, or European tuna ranching facilities and sold as sushi- grade fish, and in particular the choice cuts of such tunas, are probably among the few aquaculture products that can begin to compare to caviar in terms of high market price. 7 have been instituted to aid the recovery of certain sturgeon stocks by greatly restricting the legal market for caviar from these stocks and thereby reducing fishing pressure through eliminating much of the incentive for sturgeon fishing.2 Intensive commercial culture of sturgeon for meat and caviar is currently taking place in several countries, including the U.S., France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, the Russian Federation, China, and Uruguay (Williot et al., 2005; Wei et al., 2004; Arndt et al., 2002; Raymakers, 2002; Ivakhnenko, 2001; Williot et al., 2001). From the 25 species of sturgeon (family Acipenseridae) and two species of paddlefish (family Polyodontidae) that constitute the order Acipenseriformes, several are the primary focus of intensive commercial culture. These include the North American white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baeri), and Adriatic sturgeon (Acipenser naccarii). Several other species, including sevruga (or stellate) sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus), Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedti), beluga sturgeon (Huso huso), and American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) are also used. Some of the existing farming operations focus on the culture of native species and strains of sturgeon, while others rely on the culture of sturgeon species exotic to the region where production takes place. The choice often depends on a combination between the economic and technical aspects of production on the one hand and the regulatory setting on the other. For example, technical and research support in the form of university or extension programs and/or hatchery facilities is often available for certain species in certain locations; some sturgeon species, such as white sturgeon, are better suited to commercial culture (Van Eenennaam et al., 2004), yet others, such as beluga, hold a potentially higher promise in terms of the market price and potential for their caviar. Since introduction into the wild of non-native species of sturgeon poses a major concern, especially in aquatic systems where native sturgeon species are present, many jurisdictions restrict or prohibit the import and/or rearing of non-native sturgeons, thereby influencing the selection of species for culture. In other cases, however, it is the culture of native species, where the native species are listed or about to be listed as threatened or endangered that is restricted or prohibited for commercial purposes. This is currently the case in the state of Florida, where ESA-based restrictions from the US Fish and Wildlife Service have ruled out the commercial aquaculture of native Florida species, all of which are either listed or about to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. As a result, after an initial interest in the commercial culture of native species, Florida aquaculturists have focused on several popular European species whose decreasing availability in the wild is contributing to the market for cultured caviar. In Western Europe, production is dominated by three species – North American white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baeri), and Adriatic sturgeon (Acipenser naccarii) (Williot et al., 2001). 2 The most important recent restrictions on caviar trade include an October 2005 U.S. ban on the imports of beluga sturgeon products from the Caspian and Black Sea regions instituted under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and a broader ban on international trade in caviar from the world’s three top-producing river basins – the Caspian Sea basin, the Black Sea - lower Danube River basin, and the Amur River basin, instituted on January 3, 2006 under the authority of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) (Raloff, 2006; Caviar Emptor Press Room, http://www.caviaremptor.org/releases.html ). 8 U.S. intensive sturgeon culture is currently dominated by the production of native white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), which takes place in California and Idaho, with native Sacramento- San Joaquin and Snake River strains, respectively, cultured in each state’s facilities. The culture of several European species, however, including Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baeri), Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedti), Stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) and beluga sturgeon (Huso huso) is coming of age in Florida, where three commercial farms are about to do their first caviar harvest this year (2006) (Frank Chapman, Personal communication; Salisbury, 2006). Scope of the analysis and the ensuing recommendation This report focuses on characterizing and evaluating sturgeon culture in the United States, and makes recommendations about the sturgeon meat and caviar produced by U.S. aquaculture operations and available to U.S. consumers. The report covers five sturgeon species reared in three states and evaluates the meat and caviar products that currently come from these operations.3 The American paddlefish, Polyodon spathula, which is currently cultured on several U.S. aquatic farms (Mims, 2001; Williamson, 2003; Van Eenennaam et al., 2004; Chapin, 2006) is intentionally excluded from this report for several reasons. Most important among them are the specifics of the of the paddlefish diet: paddlefish is quite different from other sturgeon species in that it is a filter feeder that depends on plankton, while all other sturgeon are carnivores. Consequently, more extensive culture techniques that do not necessarily depend on external feed inputs, such as reservoir ranching, are used in current and considered for future paddlefish farming operations in the U.S. (Mims, 2001; Williamson, 2003; Van Eenennaam et al., 2004), while sturgeon culture, as will be discussed in the following sections, is intensive and highly dependent on external feed inputs that contain considerable amounts of fish protein in the form of fishmeal and fish oil. Such differences between the farming practices suitable for paddlefish and those used for other sturgeon species strongly suggest the need for separate assessments of sturgeon and paddlefish culture. Additionally, in spite of some recent developments, including the beginning of some caviar production on at least one of the facilities that are currently holding paddlefish, the U.S. culture of paddlefish is still largely in a research and development phase (Mims, 2001; Van Eenennaam et al., 2004). In a context where the U.S. is, alongside Japan and EU, one of the major importers and consumers of caviar – both farmed and wild – some of the farmed caviar available on the U.S. market is of foreign origin. However, the relative novelty of commercial sturgeon culture for meat and caviar, the small scale of such culture, and its very small share in total aquaculture production – across national context and internationally, make it difficult at the present time to 3 A lot of the analysis and evaluation is effectively based on the culture of white sturgeon in California and Idaho, where the six oldest and most established in terms of their practices facilities, as well as the only facilities with current caviar production, are located. Emerging sturgeon culture operations, such as the three Florida farms that are currently developing the culture of European species for caviar production are covered to the greatest extent permitted by the available data, given a context of ongoing adjustments in production processes and practices in those more recently established facilities. 9 obtain data of the detail and reliability needed for a rigorous sustainability assessment of foreign sturgeon culture operations. At least one group, however, is currently working on evaluating the sustainability of several major European producers (Julia Roberson, Personal Communication). The results of their research, expected in early 2007, should provide a valuable complement to this report and so far suggest that the sustainability ranking for much of European farmed sturgeon and caviar should be comparable to the rankings given U.S. facilities and products on the basis of this research. Further, several Chinese scholars have begun surveying and documenting the extent and nature of an apparently growing though so far not officially studied or documented sturgeon culture sector in China (Wei et al., 2004). Their work should provide especially valuable and otherwise difficult to obtain data and insight for a future sustainability assessment of sturgeon culture outside of the U.S. Sturgeon aquaculture in the U.S. A brief sector profile Communications with university researchers, extension specialists, and sturgeon farm personnel, internet research, and a review of the available peer-reviewed and gray literature suggested that nine intensive commercial aquaculture operations are currently responsible for the overwhelming majority of sturgeon meat and caviar produced in the U.S. Three of these operations are located in California, three in Idaho, and three in Florida.4 Some of these nine operations have culture facilities in several adjacent locations. One of the Florida operations – at the Mote Marine Labs - combines sturgeon culture research with the commercial production of sturgeon for meat and caviar. Several of the farms, such as Stolt Sea Farms in California, are exclusively dedicated to sturgeon culture. Others, such as the three Idaho farms, culture sturgeon in addition to other species, most importantly trout. The Tsar Nicoulai company in California is currently considering the incorporation of a polyculture element with hydroponic cultivation of vegetables, herbs and spices that utilize nutrient-rich water recirculated on the farm (Tsar Nicoulai Website, October 13, 2006; Cliff, 2005; Dr. David Stephen, Personal Communication). Currently, the farm is using water hyacinth as a nutrient absorber, because although the plant lacks commercial value, it is efficient at nutrient absorption, and unlike most herb and vegetable crops is not labor- intensive to tend to.5 In addition to the nine established sturgeon culture operations, a small number of sturgeon are apparently kept, on a mostly experimental basis, on farms whose primary focus is the culture of other species. Several such farms are reported to exist in Idaho (Dr. Terry Patterson, Personal 4 There is an indication that one of the Idaho farmers may be retiring and selling his stock to a California operation (Gary Fornshell, Personal communication). 5 It is important to note that although water hyacinth is an invasive aquatic species in the U.S., the Tsar Nicoulai sturgeon culture facility did not introduce it for the purposes of their farming operations, but rather used water hyacinth already present in its region’s water bodies. Further, and most importantly, when the farm “harvests’ water hyacinth that is redundant in its recirculation ponds, it disposes of it on a land site where it is kept until completely dried out (Dr. David Stephen, Tsar Nicoulai Farm Scientist, Personal Communication; The researcher also visited the Tsar Nicoulai facility and witnessed the nature of its recirculation pond and land disposal facilities). 10