Beluga sturgeon aquaculture produces high-value caviar while potentially relieving pressure on wild populations, with welfare challenges around the long rearing periods and biopsy methods used for sex determination.
Beluga sturgeon welfare in aquaculture involves the challenge of managing highly sensitive, long-lived animals for periods of many years before commercial harvest. Biopsy procedures for sex determination, performed on juveniles to identify females for caviar production, cause tissue injury and stress response. The enormous size of adult beluga sturgeon (up to several meters) makes handling events acutely stressful and physically hazardous for both fish and handlers. Long-term confinement in tank systems restricts the migratory behavior this species evolved with. Hormonal treatment to induce early ovulation for caviar strip-harvesting without killing the fish (a preferred welfare method) requires repeated handling and injections.