In two or three years a novelty product could hit the shelves: Greek caviar. By that time, says ichthyologist Lazaros Natsis, the first sturgeon stocks sold by the Municipal Company of the Lake of Ioannina (DELI) will have reached caviar-producing maturity. For the past eight years, DELI has been working to reintroduce sturgeon to Greece.

This Ioannina aquaculture initiative follows a worldwide reaction to the crisis faced by the large, long-living, prehistoric fish.Caviar prices have increased as varieties of sturgeon, such as the valued beluga (which lives up to 150 years and accumulates up to 1 tonne of weight), are becoming seriously depleted in the Caspian and Black seas, due to over fishing and pollution. Moreover, legendary Russian and Iranian caviar producers are facing competition from fisheries in Europe and the US .

DELI focused initially on the ecological needs and reproductive life of the smallest variety of this adaptable fish, the ruthenus (Acipenser ruthenus or Sterlet). It moved on to other varieties of sturgeon, including the Siberian (Acipenser baeri) and Russian Sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedti) . Special sturgeon incubation and raising facilities were set up on DELI's 80,000-square-metre fishery in Anatoli Municipality, near Ioannina Lake (also known as Lake Pamvotis) in Northwest Greece.

After four years of preliminary work, DELI started selling sturgeon fingerlings to select Greek, Italian and German cultivators. Today it sells about 100,000 of them a year. Because of the novelty of the product and the necessity of training buyers, DELI head Natsis only sold the sturgeon to fisheries that inspired total faith. "My goal is to always know where the fish are grown and to get to know the people who raise them personally," he says.

While the ichthyologist reports that the profits from sturgeon fingerling sales are "relatively low" today, due to research and development investments, it's clearly a profitable endeavour: the sturgeons may only make up a fraction of the 1.5 to 2 million total fish/fingerlings sold by DELI each year, but they already make up 50% of its profits.

Sturgeon comeback
The fish "totally adapts itself to Greek conditions," and is capable of growing throughout the country, requiring only a stable year-round water temperature. It grows well in fisheries, even though in the wild it is a migratory creature; the fish, indigenous to all of the Northern Hemisphere, normally migrates to the sea and returns to reproduce in rivers or lakes.

While almost nonexistent today in Greek nature, the sturgeon is no stranger to the country. Natsis says there are records of sturgeon fishing in places such as northern Greece that date back thirty years. Actually, sturgeons once swam from the Black Sea to Greek waters, but dams and the draining of lakes and rivers for agriculture made the fish disappear.

Introducing the in-demand sturgeon was a natural development for DELI, one of the few fresh-water fish specialists in a country focused on saltwater fish production. The company is owned by the Epirus Development Company, the Fishermen's Cooperative, the Nissos Community and the Ioannina Municipality. It was founded 18 years ago to increase the depleted fish stocks of Ioannina Lake. Back then the lake was reeling from the lack of a sewage treatment plant (now built).

Today, DELI still provides fish to the lake - but also produces fingerlings for other lakes, private fisheries and the decorative fish market. The only people doing similar work in Greece, according to Natsis, are the agriculture ministry perch-producing teams. With a staff ranging from three to six people, plus students from the University of Ioannina and local technical institutes , DELI blends commercial work with research. It also serves as an environmental consultant for the management of Ioannina Lake.

Easy-going fish
Natsis believes that the caviar produced by DELI’s fishery clients will taste very similar to more expensive imported varieties. He points out that fishery caviar is safer, without the risk of toxins found in some sturgeon harvested in the wild. While laws prevent DELI from growing the endangered beluga sturgeon, the company has been working with the bester, a hybrid of the largest (beluga) and smallest (ruthenus) sturgeons.

The ichthyologist has nothing but praise for the sturgeon. It’s flexible and unsusceptible to illness. It grows quickly, adding a kilo a year, but isn’t a lot of trouble. New technology is only making raising sturgeons easier, says Natsis, who keeps himself up-to-date on fishery technology, via conferences and exchanges with colleagues from Russia to Italy.

Meanwhile DELI is trying to generate a taste for sturgeon and caviar in Greece. After all, traditionally “Greek caviar” had been coming in the form of mullet roe avgotaracho and cod or carp roe taramosalata . Three years ago DELI launched the first public campaign promoting sturgeon and caviar’s nutritional and culinary value.