I actually worked for the founder and live right down the road. The founder was an asian engineer who designed a life saving mine and ied detection system for bradley tanks in the middle east. He was older so I'm sure he's retired/passed on at this point. I wanna say he was a professor at NC state before the DOJ bought his design. He used that money to fund the construction of the first warehouse. Saw some cool fights between the engineer and a lot of the sub contractors. He had the math and the subs had the experience so it was pretty legendary. The white dude in the video is his son in law. The asian girl looks like his wife and the founder's daughter but its been so long i cant be sure. He comes in the local hardware store a lot more. It's also locally Smur-na not Smeer-nah. They also have (or had) another facility in the Mountains on the western side of the state. Never thought I'd see anything from this area on here. Kind of a touristy, formerly rural, beach, fishing town where not a lot goes on. WSJ you can also check out the local oyster farms for more aquaculture fun.

This man is farming what otherwise would be unsustainablely taken from the Caspian Sea. No different from a steak, leatherbelt or handbag. We need to thank him and his investors (?) for putting up their labor and calital. Well done Sir!! I hope you will be mega succesful.

Upon further consideration, I have come to understand the reason behind the exorbitant cost of caviar.

Thank you WSJ for highlighting this unique and innovative aquaculture operation in eastern North Carolina!

The calmness of the sturgeon during the ultrasound and biopsy is remarkable. I've handled my share of fish and haven't seen that before; farmed fish may be more docile?

Farm fishing is the way to go for all fish we use as food. It not susceptible to erratic weather, viruses, algae bloom kills, etc. Great story.

I work for a sturgeon hatchery… you have to wait til they grow a certain age because they aren’t mature enough to have a gender. Also they said it takes 6 years to mature. It takes 12 years and over 20 years to hatch eggs. That’s for lake sturgeon idk if theirs are different. Now that’s natural type conditions, meaning in winter time they grow slower because the water gets colder but if they have a temperature set to let’s say 16degrees than they grow faster. Also they said they’re hatch floated. Maybe one of their machines broke that controls water quality and the fish died from having too much ammonia, or no more oxygen or whatever. A lot can happen if you don’t have alarms to tell you a machine isn’t working. Also what I don’t understand is why do they gotta kill them after they get the caviar, our scientists from my understanding stitch them back up and release them.

The fish look so cute I would love to work there just to see the fish everyday!!!

Watching this video reminds when I worked in 2 5 star 5 diamond hotels here in NYC. Beluga and 2 other caviar are not cheap, but it's basically fish eggs,but you can find cheaper ones like salmon and black fish and I don't care for it to each there own

I'm a literal member of the "working poor", and I still have tasted good cavia..(many years ago)...I must say, it's truly delicious. Hope I get to try some again someday....

I worked at an exclusive corporate grocery in wealthy area … we used to stock these Beluga caviars costing in terms of inflation now $800…. tried it and spit it out LOL had no idea what I was doing … also dumped a $100 maple syrup on waffle… threw it away too sweet

It'd be interesting to see if someone could figure out a way to surgically remove the roe and allow the fish to survive and reproduce again.

if you're raising sturgeon for years and they're dead overnight thats literally a nightmare. no wonder caviar is so expensive.

Well at least now I know caviar actually is worth its price

I love this! Love the whole process. I have never had caviar. Actually, I don’t eat anything that feeds off the ocean and I live on the beach LBI. 🤦‍♀️I know! Maybe to much saltwater intake as a kid. 🤷‍♀️lol best wishes on a great season!

Success!

Linda demais 💓Deus abençoe 🙏🏻🙏🏻

I wanted to ask, how come the roe isn't harvested after the sturgeon ejects the eggs? Wouldn't the roe be bigger by then? Is it a taste difference? I mean that way wouldn't the sturgeon be alive for multiple egg harvests?

Interesting to see what I would never buy even if I was rich

Wow!..a nature piece..I love it..

Hey, nice piece and the farm is in the comments! Hi guys, look great. 👋

Cool!

😂😂😂this commercial was at the tail end of SNL....still laughing 😂

Didn't know they have to kill the fish after a single harvest, I was under impression they'll simply milk them.

Interesting

Quite interesting!

Alexis : If the champagne is too burned for your taste, don't drink it. The caviar I trust is not burned. Dominique Deveraux : I really wouldn't know. You see that is Ostatrova and I prefer Petrossian Beluga.

I'm not a caviar consumer, I've only had small amounts on sushi, but this video was very interesting. It had a good "How it's Made" vibe.

And here I am.... Watching my my grocery list more than ever.

That’s a good setup 👍 profesional 💎

what do they do with sturgeon meat? never seen it sold at any store or restaurant but they are killing so many just for the eggs?

Imagine if aliens invaded earth and found out that human embryos were delicious. Well.. our women will all be in tanks like those fish.

Theres a sturgeon/black caviar farm in Israel at the Dan Kibbutz. It's been operating for years, and IIRC is the first sturgeon farm in the world, operating since 1992.

Skode! Is all the equipment hurricane ready?

I’m glad they farm it I thought they were killing off wild sturgeons

The most amazing thing is the fact that this stuff doesn't even taste good enough to justify the cost, same deal with truffles

So can i buy into the businrss and they raise the fish for me?

Do the fish get a choice in Gender in the 5th year ??

Caviar 🤤

You know flying fish roe is good enough for me. And way cheeper lol

Farmin!!

We need to protect this amazing fish that's been around since the dinosaurs just hurting our ecosystem even more than we already r

It's amazing how there's droughted lakes and areas, yet pools of water everywhere...

Now if only they can figure out how to extract the row without killing the fish, 12 years is a long time to wait.

It's really cool that a rep from the farm featured took the time to thoughtfully respond to some of the comments.

Are these guys ever able to take a vacation?

Proof having more money than sense is definitely a thing😂

Fish jumped out at 2:33 😂

Why do they kill the fish when they harvest?

What do they do with the flesh of the fish after the eggs are harvested? Can you eat it? 🤔

Is it really delicious?

3:04 Don Corlone has branched into the fishing business. Luca Brassi would approve

It's a shame that they need to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Wow, best way to torch your money

I wonder if the metal tweezers effect taste?

It’s strange that the fish themselves are the after product.

Fix your subtitles, it's not "row", it's "roe"

2:23 Wait.. say that again for our younger viewers?

What if we don't eat caviar at all..

Louisa Victoria 👍🏻💎🤝🇪🇸

This made me SO hungry...

1:23 you guys remember that one tall white guy from MadTV?

So u shouldnt use metal spoons to get the caviar out but its stored in metal containers? 🤔🤔🤔

There’s no kill farms now

I've eaten both cheap and expensive caviar. It's taste is not exactly good! But I suppose it's a matter of personal taste.

I’m hungry now

Lets see Paul Allen's caviar farm

2:32 didn't know sturgeon could jump like that

So what do they do with the dead fish?

damnit I was hoping it'd be dirt simple.

Does this hurt the fish?

This video is missing a lot of key points, this product os very niche and expensive to start. The founder must've had prior experience

Can you do DNA sampling to get the sex? I know DNA sampling has gotten very cheap these days

Sick🤬

Looks like Novak Djokovic has a side hustle on his days off

Yeah, this has to be a fairly new farm? No older than 23 yrs otherwise it would have been on “Dirty Jobs.” (I would think 💭)

Why would they not use DNA sampling to tell the gender of the fish? The comment about having to wait 5 years to be able to determine male/female seems odd.

Rafael García Hernández

caviar is so expensive and can be grown in the USA

Why are ther killed

Wait until aliens from deep space do this to humans

Omg I'm really shocked.

Health benefits from caviar?

i doubt if these guys can even break even!

1.2m views, 200 comments

There is no reason to kill your sturgeon. There is a no kill method, please reassess your methods…

I've observed that any caviar that I can afford to buy...isn't worth eating. Any that which is worth eating...I can't afford. The same can be said of champagne.

😊

Rich peoples chicken 🤑

@2:35 any one else see the one jump out of water lol

I can see why its expensive as it is not automated at all.

Doesn't matter how much you charge for it, it's still just a bunch of fat and salt.

gonadal structure sounds like it belongs inside a dirty joke from Victorian England

Your telling me there isn't a blood / generic test that can tell male from female?

Hold on hold on!what do you mean by MALE AND FEMALE! 😅😂

Not saying it’s easy but in the end it’s a 512% profit these farms are making per fish a year

seemed expensive till i saw the oz price. thats like decent weed prices

Wow this woman gets paid to taste caviar up to 60 times a day, if that was purchased caviar, how humch would that cost? Lol

😂

The fact that the producers also get to determine the grade is suss af... what's to stop them from just "creating" a new ultra high premium grade thats actually just all the rejects and pricing it at 350/ounce?