Sitting in the sunshine on the shores of the Saint John River at Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar Inc., facility owner Cornel Ceapa uses a tiny mother-of-pearl spoon to deposit a “bump” of caviar onto the back of my hand. I lick it off and move the buttery sturgeon eggs around my mouth before swallowing. “It’s so good,” I tell him, and he deposits another. It’s hard to decide which is better, the emerald caviar or the gold, which both come from different types of shortnose sturgeon farmed by Ceapa. Unfortunately, he’s out of wild caviar, sustainably harvested from the Bay of Fundy, when I visit, but these three products are his mainstays.

UNIQUE CAVIAR EXPERIENCES IN NEW BRUNSWICK

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You’ll find his caviar served in restaurants throughout the Maritimes and beyond, and for the curious, Ceapa offers several unique experiences at his facility: Caviar Academy is a multi-course tasting experience where caviar and sturgeon are served with locally produced vodka and chilled dry champagne; you can participate in the harvesting of wild sturgeon out on the bay on a Sturgeon Safari, followed by a tasting, or sign up for the Sturgeon Extravaganza that over two days takes you out on a boat to tour the river and harvest sturgeon, and has both a tasting experience and a beach bonfire with sturgeon barbeque.

THE JOURNEY OF ACADIAN STURGEON AND CAVIAR INC.

Most people have no clue that some of the world’s best caviar comes from New Brunswick, but it is a somewhat recent development. Newly armed with a PhD in sturgeon fisheries/biology, and after working on the stellate sturgeon population in the Danube River, Ceapa moved from Romania to Saint John in 2001 to take a position at the University of New Brunswick. Within five years had started his land-based sturgeon farm with his wife Dorina and their son Michael, initially selling hatchlings to research institutes and governments abroad. By 2008, the company was selling smoked and processed sturgeon too, but all this was to keep the lights on while they waited the ten years for their sturgeon to grow big enough to extract their caviar.

SUSTAINABLE STURGEON FARMING

Sturgeon are a hardy species — they’ve been on the planet since the dinosaurs, and look like it — but they are endangered. Ceapa cares deeply about the fish he is raising and the fish he harvests from the Bay of Fundy. He jokes that these fish have a really good life before having one bad day. His products are Ocean Wise recommended, and he cuts no corners when it comes to creating a sustainable product. The closed systems that Ceapa uses in his land-based facility are river water fed and he uses no chemicals.

The breeding that Ceapa does at his facility is helping to save sturgeon, which have been overfished — like many species — and suffer depleted stocks the world over. One sturgeon can produce 200,000 eggs, but in the wild 99% of those eggs are eaten, and then another 99% of what’s left are eaten before maturity, explains Ceapa. In his facility, the sturgeon can have eggs taken multiple times through a minor operation — “I’ve become a sturgeon surgeon,” he jokes, but when the fish are killed no part is wasted and everything is smoked or preserved, even the massive skins (the farmed sturgeon can be upto 1.5m long), which make for interesting room decor.

EXPANDING PREMIER TOURISM EXPERIENCES

Looking to build on the tourism experiences that he already offers, Ceapa is currently building a beautiful new visitor centre where he will host more dinners and tasting experiences. His already successful business model has given such a unique and high-end experience to those who visit Saint John, and this expansion will allow more people to experience his hospitality and enthusiasm for sturgeon. Taking the beautiful drive (plus quaint cable ferry across the Saint John River) out to visit Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar Inc. is such a beautiful way to spend an afternoon, and taking things further with one of his signature experiences will teach you so much about caviar that you’ll come home an expert on this premium product.