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REVIEW article

Front. Anim. Sci.
Sec. Animal Welfare and Policy
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fanim.2024.1432765
This article is part of the Research Topic Aquatic Animals' Welfare: Current Issues in Fishery and Aquaculture View all 3 articles

Dying for a canape: The welfare implications associated with both traditional and 'ethical' production of caviar from sturgeon

Provisionally accepted
Helen Lambert Helen Lambert 1Wasseem Emam Wasseem Emam 2,3*
  • 1 Animal Welfare Consultancy, Kingsteignton, United Kingdom
  • 2 Ethical Seafood Research Ltd, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • 3 Institute of Aquaculture, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The farming of sturgeon to produce caviar is increasing globally, even though little is known about the welfare implications of aquaculture for these unique, long-living, and large animals. The use of nonlethal methods for egg harvesting is increasing as these methods are thought to offer a more ethical alternative to traditional methods where the female is killed. However, these 'nonlethal' methods raise significant welfare concerns including routine handling, surgical procedures, and painful procedures, and could potentially perpetuate suffering. Consequently, there is an urgent need for significant exploration and research into this field.This review presents and discusses some of the welfare concerns associated with producing caviar from sturgeon, including the traditional and nonlethal methods of egg harvesting and the concerns associated with rearing them in aquaculture systems. It concludes in stating that the welfare issues involved with nonlethal caviar production are too sizeable to warrant its description as an 'ethical or humane' alternative to traditional caviar production.Wild populations of sturgeon have declined as a result of both legal and illegal overfishing and significant habitat fragmentation and loss (

    Keywords: Sturgeon (acipenseridae), Caviar, Ethical caviar, Aquaculture, fish, No-kill caviar

    Received: 14 May 2024; Accepted: 31 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lambert and Emam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wasseem Emam, Ethical Seafood Research Ltd, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.