Israeli scientists have bred valuable sturgeon fish eggs in Israel for the first time.
The sturgeon, which producing the valuable eggs served as caviar, were bred artificially in ponds to mature at a younger age. A company located on Kibbutz Dan in northern Israel, Cavier Galilee, which produced the eggs, expects that exporting the delicacy will yield the company $7 million annually by 2010.
The fertilized sturgeon eggs were brought to Israel from the Caspian Sea eight years ago by Hebrew University scientists. Caviar production in the Caspian is waning because of the effects of over-fishing and pollution on the species’ population.
Maimonides, the 12th century scholar and sage, approved a fish called “esturgeon” for kosher consumption, but it is unclear whether esturgeon and sturgeon are actually the same fish.
