ACADIAN STURGEON & CAVIAR

Farmers: Cornel and Dorina Ceapa and their son Michael

Place: Carters Point, New Brunswick

Product: Acadian Sturgeon Caviar, Sturgeon Meat, Smoked Sturgeon Pâté

The Ceapa family plays a major role in the maintenance and growth of the Sturgeon population in Canada and worldwide.  

Dr. Ceapa (who has a PhD in sturgeon biology) and his team have been processing wild Atlantic sturgeon meat and caviar since 2008  in a state of the art CFIA inspected processing plant in Carters Point. Wild sturgeon are purchased from a very small commercial fishery that has been fishing sturgeon for over 100 years on the Saint John River. In acknowledgement of the vulnerability of this ancient fish, they harvest a limited quantity of mature sturgeon each summer. Each sturgeon's biological measurements are taken and the data is shared with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The amount of fish taken from the river is monitored and limited by DFO in order for the sturgeon commercial fishery to be sustainable in the future. Furthermore, Dr. Ceapa and his family are determined to use wild sturgeon only for a short period, until the first generation of sturgeon in the aquaculture farm in Carters Point matures and can viably produce meat and caviar.

They sustainably produce and sell live sturgeon, caviar, sturgeon products (fillets, loins, smoked fillets etc) and by-products (fins, skins, isinglass, male gonads). At the same time, in order to promote Canadian native sturgeon species and encourage development of sturgeon aquaculture, they offer consulting services regarding sturgeon spawning, growing, designing of sturgeon farms, sturgeon ecology etc...