Sturgeons are among the world's most critically endangered fish families, with wild populations devastated by poaching and habitat loss. Aquaculture production of caviar has shifted to Iran, China, and Europe, but the welfare of farmed sturgeons — particularly during egg stripping — raises significant concerns.
Traditional caviar production kills females that have grown for a decade or more to produce a single harvest. The welfare cost — ending the lives of long-lived, cognitively complex animals for a luxury food product — is disproportionate to the food value provided. Non-lethal hormone-induced stripping allows females to survive and reproduce repeatedly, but the procedure involves handling, hormonal manipulation, and physical stress. Farmed sturgeons in holding tanks face chronic crowding stress in environments fundamentally unlike their native large riverine habitat. Welfare improvement requires adoption of non-lethal stripping, low stocking densities, and flow-through systems mimicking river conditions.