Starting with summer of 2005, the company is developing a captive broodstock and producing fertilized eggs, larvae and juveniles of both Atlantic (Acipenser oxyrhynchus) and shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser breviro-strum) – captive breeding CITES resistered operation in our Carters Point Sturgeon Hatchery. We are now building a land based grow-out sturgeon farm (on over 6.5 acres of land in Carters Point, with a designed capacity of 165 tons of sturgeon meat and 10 tons of caviar), farm that will include R&D and a gene bank for both sturgeon species available in Saint John River.
Since 2008 we are processing wild Atlantic sturgeon meat and caviar in our new state of the art CFIA inspected processing plant in Carters Point. Wild sturgeon are purchased from a very small commercial fishery for Atlantic sturgeon on Saint John River, and our company is collaborating with them for harvesting a limited quantity of mature sturgeon each summer. Each sturgeon is taken biological measurements and the data are shared with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The amount of fish taken from the river is monitored and limited by DFO so as the sturgeon commercial fishery to be sustainable in the future. Furthermore, the company is determined to use wild sturgeon as a quality standard for our aquaculture meat and caviar, striving to bring up the quality of aquaculture fish close to the wild ones!
Since 2008 we use wild Atlantic sturgeon products to develop our products and markets for our coming aquaculture production. Our sales and distribution network expands each month. We have wholesale distributors in all major cities in Canada (Halifax, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver etc), but also sell directly to restaurants, deli stores as well as to individual customers in our secured on-line e-commerce store.
Since 2005 private companies from USA, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, Belgium and Poland are importing live sturgeon from our stocks as live fertilized eggs, larvae and juveniles for aquaculture. The interest for our species is growing internationally, and Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar is determined to help the promotion of culturing our sturgeon species in sustainable aquaculture operations in the whole world.
Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar is contributing to restocking sturgeon in rivers where Atlantic sturgeon use to be native and disappeared due to natural causes or overfishing. Germany and Poland share international programs for repopulating the Baltic Sea with sturgeons from Saint John River stock, produced in our hatchery. The company has exporting fertilized eggs and larvae and is collaborating with research institutes and sturgeon associations for sturgeon rehabilitation in Europe.
