Our Story
We would say it all started in 1991 when the owner of Acadian Sturgeon, Cornel Ceapa – as a young aquaculture and fisheries undergraduate, tried to start his own business in smoked trout processing in the mountain area in Romania on Bicaz Lake… Long story short, it did not work… so he turned to Academics working in the University of Lower Danube for over 10 years up the scale to Associate Professor… In 1995 when Cornel started his PhD with the late Professor Nicolae Bacalbasa (1916-2010) he wanted to turn mountains and do something worthwhile long after finishing his thesis… He did a field trip with Prof. Bacalbasa and John Van Oss, a visiting American student from Oshkosh, Wisconsin and participated in fishing sturgeon on the Danube River for one afternoon… He was intrigued and surprised by seeing those large and different looking fish being caught and decided to work on them… Cornel knew they are endangered and his aim of being worthwhile was as real as it could be… Love at first sight that got stronger in time…
After graduating “Magna cum Laudae” his PhD in 2001 with a co-direction thesis (Romania and France – where a world renowned sturgeon researcher was his supervisor – Dr. Patrick Williot) Cornel and his family needed new aims… So they moved to Canada! Cornel got a entry level job at the University of New Brunswick and fell in love again… with New Brunswick! Beautiful Saint John River offered them the place and chance to start our dream business with the help of some of the nicest people on Earth (like Stanley Whelpley, Glenn McRae and many others)…
Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar is a real family family business – Cornel`s wife Dorina and their son Michael put all their efforts and passion in this and without being a team they would not have succeeded! No use to remember so many hard times in the first years, they managed to get over them! Sky is the limit as they still have long way to go until we finish their ambitious plans and leave a legacy of sustainability on this Earth!
Chase down your passion like it’s the last bus of the night.
Our Logo
During the winter of 2005 I was wondering how should my logo look like. I had a few directions: sturgeon, water, long time and slow road to developing this business, team work, difficulty and slow process… And I come up with the idea of a STURGEON GALLEASS: A large, three-masted galley/galleon hybrid of the 16th and 17th centuries that used both sails and oars. This is the idea of our business: a business hard to put in motion but powerful and successful with the right people at the oars and sometimes with the right wind behind the sails! Coming from the ancient times as come the sturgeon…
And those boats were often carrying gold and other large treasures on board as does our sturgeon – the caviar!
Putting it on paper was another story: we asked OCTAVIAN CATRINESCU, a gifted artist, only 14 years old boy at the time, a relative of mine from Romania, to come up with a hand drawing of a sturgeon galleass and that’s how our logo come to life!
We love it, hope you do too!
