ECC's Peter Josselyn visits the Acadian Sturgeon facility on a delicious assignment.

Saint John may soon be known as a world centre for caviar, thanks to the effort Cornel Ceapa, owner of Acadian Sturgeon.

Cornel Ceapa loves sturgeon. This is evident as he manoeuvres one of the prehistoric-looking fish out of a tank at his Carter's Point hatchery for demonstration. He explains that the fish are protected by the bony scutes, or plates, on the outside of their body. Despite their strong natural defences that leave the fish with few natural predators, they are very vulnerable, since sturgeon is the only true source of caviar.

^{Dr. Ceapa holds one of his Acadian Sturgeon}

There has been a commercial sturgeon fishery on the St. John River for many decades. Over the coming years, Ceapa is planning to expand his facility at Carter’s Point into a full-scale aquaculture operation that will house fish to maturity. Sturgeon is endangered in many places due to decades of overfishing, and the entrepreneur currently provides stocking material for these suffering markets, shipping roe and fry around the world.

Sturgeon aquaculture has unique challenges. As a scientist, Dr. Ceapa is careful to make sure that all his work will sustain the current fish that naturally populate the river. One of the biggest difficulties with the sturgeon is, however, the length of time to maturity. It will be ten years before the fish can be harvested, notably longer than other fish raised in aquaculture. And after all that, there’s another hurdle: by the time of maturity, the fish could be five feet long. This means that huge tanks will be needed—and in some quantity—for Acadian Sturgeon to truly take flight.

Ceapa focuses on the using the whole fish. He prefers to see caviar as a wonderful (and possibly lucrative) by-product. Acadian Sturgeon sells frozen and smoked sturgeon, which is both meaty and delicate. The flavour is light, so he prefers not to smoke it too strongly. The texture of the meat is similar to tuna or swordfish.

^{The goods: Acadian Sturgeon caviar, and smoked sturgeon}

And then there is the caviar: sharing a tin was truly a wonderful journalistic assignment. We consumed it simply on buttered toast and with mother of pearl spoons. The velvety texture, light saltiness, and sublime taste make it a true delicacy. The caviar is very competitively priced and has the added advantage that is a part of a sustainable business model.

What better food to include on a hundred-mile-diet than caviar and lean sturgeon meat? It’s local, sustainable, and healthy. But while these facts speak for themselves, there is not much familiarity with sturgeon in Atlantic Canada, despite the abundance of different seafood in the region. Ceapa has been working hard to open some minds, and make sturgeon a more popular food choice. He has strategically introduced chefs to the product, and the meat is sold mainly to clients in the larger markets of Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. In the lead up to the Olympics in Vancouver, Ceapa shipped fifty kilos of his authentically Canadian cuisine to restaurants and markets in the city. He’s changing minds locally, too: Acadian Sturgeon sells pate in the Saint John City Market and offers sale of meat from their web site.

Ceapa is uniquely positioned to put New Brunswick caviar on the map. Romanian-born, he has a PhD in Fisheries Engineering, and specialized in sturgeon. After coming to New Brunswick pursuing an opportunity at UNBSJ, he fell in love with the region. He hasn’t looked back. “New Brunswick is such a nice place to be,” he said. He says the area is an “amazing place” because of the closeness to freshwater rivers and the ocean. At the moment, he is waiting for the right time to expand his facility. “You have to do what you love,” he says.