The book beautifully details the volatile caviar industry, painting a picture of a world where the sturgeon no longer jumps freely in the waters of the Volga Riverโor anywhere, for that matter. Caviar, or the eggs of a mature female sturgeon, has impacted history in unexpected ways, shaping a new cultural and natural landscape while also leading to a tragedy of the commons in global waters.
According to Saffron, the democratization of access to luxury goods has transformed the food of the tsars into a highly desired middle-class delicacy, all the while creating intense strains on sturgeon populations. Caviar explores three distinct processes: 1 the rise of caviar to the forefront of the public mind, 2 the rush to capitalize on this newfound popularity, and 3 the post-Soviet destabilization of the caviar market.
Saffron writes that sturgeon eggs were long approached with caution, considered a backward dish enjoyed in the five nations surrounding the Caspian, and discarded for the pigs anywhere else. Caviar was widely appreciated in the Russian Empire for religious reasons, and travelers who indulged in it at its freshest attempted to bring delicacy to the Italians, Greeks, and Ottomans. The perishability of caviar made it challenging to trade in until the invention of refrigeration and steam-powered ships rocketed it into a position of global prestige.
German, French, and American waters were quickly divided among competing companies eager to cash in on the growing market. Overfishing led to the near extinction of the American and European sturgeons as the next generation of fish was devoured on bread and blinis. Electric dam production and overfishing threatened to end the Russian caviar empire. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, poachers and newly established private institutions flooded global markets with cheap caviar p.
Since the s, the global caviar market has been a battleground between conservationists and poachers, and a limited number of legitimate businesses are still allowed to fish in the waters and tributaries of the Caspian.
