Should you Eat Paddlefish Roe?

How eating these ancient, threatened fish impacts the species.

Paddlefish have been swimming the waters of North America for more than 70 million years, but if we are not careful the 21st Century will be the end of the line for the ancient fish. Knowing that paddlefish numbers continue to dwindle across the country, many conservationists suggest that we leave wild paddlefish caviar off our plates.

Dr. Phaedra Doukakis, a scientist best known for her work in helping to develop a DNA test to detect mislabeled caviar in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History, said, “By in large, nobody should eat wild-sourced caviar.”

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide says wild paddlefish should be avoided because state-managed conservation programs aren’t working. Seafood Watch says, “Management of the sturgeon and paddlefish fisheries in the Mississippi watershed is ineffective at protecting these unique fish from overfishing, and as such these fish and their caviar should be avoided.”

The Safina Center (formerly Blue Ocean Institute), also put a red flag on wild paddlefish, meaning it should be avoided. In addition to concerns that overfishing and the destruction of their natural habitat continue to put paddlefish at risk, the group warns that both wild paddlefish and sturgeon, “… may have high levels of mercury and PCBs that could pose a health risk to adults and children.”

The population health of paddlefish is difficult to track because they live almost as long as humans. Females do not mature and begin to produce eggs until they are in their late teens and the fish often live more than 50 years. So it’s difficult to gauge conservation measures immediately.

But Professor Dennis Scarnecchia, a paddlefish expert based at the University of Idaho, takes issue with the claim that state management of paddlefish is ineffective. In fact, he says some programs are excellent. He does agree that, “there is a need for more cooperation among states and regions, particularly in commercial fisheries.”

“The greatest risk to wild paddlefish,” Scarnecchia says, “is loss of their natural habitat.” He says, “Rivers are being regulated –rip-rapped (placing large rocks along shoreline to prevent erosion) — the flows are being taken off for various uses and flood pulses are being depressed.” All of which he says is critical for natural paddlefish spawning.

But there is hope. Despite their large size (some can get as long as 7 feet and weigh as much as 200 pounds), paddlefish are good candidates for fish farming.

The Caviar Emptor, a campaign led by the National Resources Defense Council, SeaWeb, and the Pew Institute for Ocean Science (all links needed), says, “Caviar varieties produced from sturgeon and paddlefish farmed in the United States offer excellent taste and are environmentally sustainable.” Seafood Watch agrees. It says, “Caviar aquaculture has become an increasingly viable option and is a better alternative compared to caviar and roe from wild-caught fishes.”

Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste program, which highlights rare and heritage foods that include domestic and wild plants and animals, says, “Due to its unique diet of zooplankton, the farming of adult paddlefish neatly sidesteps the many pitfalls commonly associated with aquaculture or fish farming, such as pollution, feeding of staple crops or other fish to farmed fish, and overbreeding.”

A number of paddlefish farms are based in Kentucky, which raise paddlefish for both meat and caviar. Many paddlefish ranchers are the graduates of Kentucky State University’s Paddlefish & Sustainable Aquaculture program. The largest company that farms paddlefish in the U.S. for caviar is the L’Osage Caviar Company, based inOsage Beach, Missouri.

Farmed paddlefish and sturgeon caviar may help reduce the demand for wild caviar. In fact, since the US banned the import of beluga sturgeon caviar from the Caspian Sea, American farmed caviar has seen a significant surge in business.

A 4 ounce tin of the farmed stuff will set you back about $100 to $200, but you can rest easy knowing that you haven’t compromised a threatened wild species for a culinary treat.

You can read more about paddlefish here.