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Norway fish farmer to pioneer sturgeon caviar

A fish farmer in northern Norway plans to begin producing caviar from farmed Siberian sturgeon in what he calls “a milestone” for the country’s fish industry.

Norway fish farmer to pioneer sturgeon caviar
A dish of ossetra caviar on potato gratin with crème fraiche. Photo: Charles Haynes
Polarfisk has been battling for four years to get permission from Norway’s Environment Ministry to introduce a new species to the country for aquaculture, arguing that as the sturgeon will be bred in tanks on land, there is little risk of them escaping to the wild. 
 
Last week, it finally got the go ahead, opening the way for the company to build a new plant capable of producing up to 300 tonnes of gutted sturgeon fish and ten tonnes of farmed sturgeon caviar a year. 
 
“This will be the first facility in Norway where we both rear sturgeon and produce readily marketable Russian caviar,” Anker Bergli, the company’s chief executive, told Norway’s NTB news wire.
 
Norway has become a world leader in farmed salmon since the country pioneered the use of floating sea cages in the late 1960s, but has yet to commercialise sturgeon production. 
 
Illegal sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea, the traditional source of the finest beluga caviar, has led to plummeting fish stocks and soaring prices, forcing the caviar industry to rely ever more on farmed fish. 
 
Polarfisk is now attempting to raise money from investors to fund the construction of the plant, which will be based on a system pioneered in Denmark. 
 
“Both products are well remunerated, and we are not reinventing gunpowder, but adopting a technology already developed in Denmark,” Bergli said. “We will have full control of the water used in production, with a recycling rate of over 99 percent.” 
 
Last week Norway’s environment ministry gave the company its approval after concluded that there was little chance of the fish escaping. 
 
“Although it can not be ruled out, it is the Ministry's view that it is unlikely that escaped sturgeon will find their way to the suitable rivers in southern Norway, and even less likely that they repeatedly, in large numbers, will find their way to suitable rivers.”
 

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FISH

Teenager dies snorkelling after venomous fish encounter off Costa Brava beach

A 16-year-old was killed while snorkelling off Platja d’Aro in Catalonia after an encounter with a venomous weever fish.

Teenager dies snorkelling after venomous fish encounter off Costa Brava beach
Stock photo: District47/Flickr

The boy, who has not been publically named, suffered anaphylactic shock and died on Saturday afternoon while on a family trip to the beach.

His parents raised the alarm after he disappeared while snorkelling and he was found unconscious nearby by bathers and brought to shore.

Initial post-mortem results show the teenager had a tiny wound on his neck, above his windpipe, and scratches on his face.

His parents told local media that he had been filming marine life with a waterproof camera and that footage retrieved by investigators suggested he had been stung by a weever fish.

“He had been following a jellyfish about 100 metres offshore which led him to a strange and colourful fish with a harmless-looking face,” according to a statement from the parents quoted in La Vanguardia.

“He was only able to film it for 30 seconds from a distance and at the last second it disappeared and stung him around the jaw area.”

A post-mortem has been carried out in nearby Girona where forensic staff are awaiting toxicology results.

The fish has been identified locally as a spotted weever (rachinus araneusa) a species that carries venom in its dorsal spines and buries itself in sand on the seabed.


Photo by Roberto Pillon/creative commons/fishbase.org

They are usually hard to spot and have been known to deliver painful stings to swimmers feet who unknowingly step in them when paddling in shallow water.

But although they can provoke a severe allergic reaction and in rare cases provoke heart attacks such stings rarely prove fatal because those who step on them can usually reach the safety of the shore before drowning.

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