From Sturgeon!

Ooh.

Russian sturgeon produce one of the most expensive

and sought-after caviar, and it's almost always

imported from Russia and Europe.

You usually don't find it raised in the US at all,

but Marshallberg Farms is producing top quality caviar

in North Carolina, using sustainable aquaculture

to raise the species, decreasing the demand on wild

populations for this most profitable

and high demand delicacy.

- Hello!

- Hi Sabine nice to meet you!

- Hi nice to meet you, welcome to Marshallberg Farm!

- Thank you!

- This is product from four different females,

so you can see how different.

This is the same species for all the Russian sturgeon,

that's a superior grade right there that you're having.

- So this is the top grade, superior?

- Yeah.

- I mean for people that have not had caviar,

it's sort of what you'd expect by looking at it.

They're these tiny little burst in your mouth eggs

that are just so fresh and delicate and firm

and just kind of pop.

It's so delicious.

- We raise Russian sturgeon in here.

Russian sturgeon is one out of 27 species of Sturgeon.

- Beluga is top tier, and this is Ossetra, right?

- Ossetra, correct.

- Which is still up there, really highly regarded.

- So those are fingerlings right here.

This is where we first add the fish into.

It's better to put them in a smaller tank,

because you have better control over them.

- How long does the process take from start to finish?

- About seven years, it's a very long process.

- So, does that essentially mean that every seven years

you are starting over?

- Well out of a whole tank of females at seven years,

we may harvest 10 or 20 percent that have the quality

and the standard that we want, the rest we will let go

into another cycle, and then look at them the next year.

- They start in here, and then once they're big enough

they're transferred to the tanks in the other room?

- Yes, and then when they're ready at about seven years,

then we can take some females out, stage them and harvest.

And we try to harvest only what we feel is the top quality

that can compare to wild-caught product.

That's essentially what we're trying to do,

we want to counter wild-caught Sturgeon.

Marshallberg Farms believes that farming sturgeon

can help wild populations survive.

So you can't see from the outside what a sturgeon is,

if it's a male or a female, you know.

- Interesting.

- It's just a mystery, so you have to look inside

of the sturgeon, you have to screen them with ultrasound.

- You're pulling fish out by hand, one by one,

and ultrasounding them?

- Yes?

- They're huge, they're like mini sharks.

And I have to stick my hands in there. (laughs)

- Walk like a farmer. (laughs)

- Like.

- Yeah there you go. (laughs)

This is James Harwick from Metallica.

(laughing)

- Decided to take up fish farming.

(laughing)

- So we're just kind of like,

taking the nose up, super easy.

- Just like that.

- I'm terrified I'm gonna drop one.

- You got it.

Pick it up, pick it up.

- Go go go go!

Don't give up.

- Hold on hold on.

- I don't wanna drop it!

Five hours later.

- Quick quick quick quick quick!

- Now hold it tight, hold it tight!

- Woo!

(cheering)

- We use an electric current to calm the fish down,

it's a little tingle.

- Yeah it's so slight.

- You take them out and they're awake, so that's why

we don't like to use sedatives or CO2,

this is really the best method.

- There you go, good job.

We're looking at the muscle, right here, that's the muscle.

Underneath is the gonad, right there,

so that shows me the white frickly stuff is that

that female is not ready yet.

That one might have something, maybe.

You stick a little, you see the eggs right there?

So that one's not ready yet, but she's close.

- She already has eggs, they're starting to get some

coloration to them, so we're gonna probably look at this one

again in two to three months.

- Big fish.

- Here you see the eggs, see how this is all

the way filled, on the other one it was kind of

ended here and you saw all the guts on the bottom.

Here this fish is completely packed full with eggs.

So now we're gonna do a biopsy here as well.

You see, this one is more of an amber color here.

- So the color's different.

- Oh it's always different.

It's nothing that we can really influence,

the color is what it is.

And you can see egg size is nice, we want them to be

more than two and a half.

They're good.

They're good to go!

So this is our staging facility, staging meaning

purging the fish from any adverse taste

that may be present in the eggs.

- So they're being put in cleaner water or?

- Yes.

There's always a concern about animal welfare

in fish farming, you will not achieve your goal

of a high quality product without keeping your fish happy.

They're ready to go pretty much, we make sure that

throughout the staging process they have not reabsorbed

their eggs and the quality is still good.

If they have, it's not a huge deal, we put them back

into the conduction tank, we feed them again,

and we just have to wait another year or two.

- So you are saying that if they're stressed out

in any way, they will reabsorb their eggs?

- Exactly.

- So how are they euthanized?

- So we use stunning, remove them from the tank,

we use a hammer and we hit them right away.

So it's a matter of five seconds and the fish is euthanized,

so if you think about it, in wild fisheries,

how do they do it?

They throw them on a boat, and they suffocate.

And we're going to transfer this to a bowl of ice.

That is the row.

- So then what do you do with the fish?

- We try to use everything.

- That's really important.

- First thing, is the swim bladder right here,

you can use that for isinglass.

It's very popular in beer filtering

and also restoration of paintings.

And then we utilize all other kinds of parts,

you know the whole fish, the meat.

- You're selling the meat of the fish as well,

- Yes.

- How many will you harvest within a day?

- Up to 14.

- Oh wow.

It's more firm than I thought.

What's the grading system?

- We only have two major grades and that's the superior

that's our highest grade and the classic.

The superior has the largest egg, typically lighter shades,

and a very firm texture after salting.

Now the classic still, they're just a little bit softer

in texture and they tend to be a little darker in egg shade.

- How much do you sell your premium?

- So the at whole sale price we sell it for $1300 a kilo,

and then retail it'll be much more.

And then the classic goes for $950 a kilo.

Some distributors, some restaurants,

and then we have a retail shop for customers.

Now we are going to rinse this.

Lisa over here is gonna calculate salt.

80 and I wanna verify that.

80, verified.

- And what kind of salt is this,

it's super fine.

- Its a mine salt.

And now its the time when you kind of decide

the initial grade.

- It's so, so good.

It's firm and like, tiny little bursts.

Amber, 2.5.

So it has kind of a brownish touch to it,

and firm that's just for the texture,

'cause it does pop in the mouth,

it doesn't like easily mush.

- You were mentioning some people like to age their caviar.

- Mhm, yes so the aging process does make quite a difference

in the flavor of the product.

That is very typical, that the caviar gets aged

to about three months typically.

- How much does that sell for?

- Will go for between $950 and $1300, so this is a kilogram.

You don't absolutely do not want any air in this tin.

If that happens, what's gonna happen a month later

is it's going to literally start tasting very fishy.

- This is like a caviar snow cone.

- It is.

(laughing)

- Thank you so much for taking me

through your facility today,

it was a really rewarding special day.

This has just, in a way changed my view on farmed fish.

- I think you did really well today.

- Oh thank you.

- You did a very good job, you handled the fish.

- Took a little while to get those fish out of there.

- You didn't drop a fish.

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