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Author Paul Greenberg makes his return to the show this week, and if Paul is here then you know the conversation will steer towards fishing. The longtime New York City native is one of my favorite fishing/fisheries authors and we always have an interesting conversation. During this visit we take a deep dive into the caviar industry and it’s impact on global sturgeon populations. It’s fascinating to see how social media has also contributed to an insatiable increase in the caviar appetite of the younger generation.

(Unsustainable Wild sturgeon caviar production in Russia circa 1940s)

Paul’s recent article “Caviar Pizza’s, New Money and the Death of Ancient Fish“, is one of the fascinating pieces I’ve read this year as he examines where conservation and human’s desire for the luxury animal products converge. Thankfully, aqua culture (farmed sturgeon caviar production) seems to provide an alternative to wiping these giant, ancient fish off the planet. Having lived in the communist U.S.S.R as a young man, Paul recalls some foggy, hangover fueled brunches where bowls of black caviar were stacked so high they couldn’t even finish eating it all.

His experiences in Russia (both before and after the fall of the Soviet Union) are as humorous as they are insightful, one better be prepared to finish the entire bottle once the cap is off on a bottle of vodka! So anyway, where are sturgeon populations today? Both domestically and abroad? Are there still places in North American where one can catch and keep wild sturgeon? Paul also recounts his experience tagging along with biologists catching and tagging sturgeon in the Hudson River, right there in the Big Apple.

(Scientist Amanda Higgs collects biological data from a 90-kilogram sturgeon she caught and released in the Hudson River. Photo by Paul Greenberg)