guilty foods :(

On Caviar

Scientists Fight Time to Save Beluga

90% of the world's beluga caviar comes from sturgeon caught in the Caspian Sea. Beluga sturgeon have existed on Earth since prehistoric times. The viability of their existence due to irregular fish counts and overfishing by neighboring countries, but nearly all involved agree: there are less beluga sturgeons being caught today than fifteen years ago. In some fisheries, sturgeon catches are down as much as 70% over the past decade.

The U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which sets sturgeon fishing quotas each year, imposed a ban on taking sturgeon and exporting caviar from the Caspian this year after the surrounding states failed to submit a convincing plan to protect the fish. The Persian species concentrated in Iranian waters was exempted from the ban because it is not endangered.

Doukakis said the ban would not help because the treaty, known as CITES, has no tools to implement its rules and because "there seem to be enough outlets for illegal trade or a big enough domestic market."
The caviar trade is so lucrative it makes poaching hard to resist and control. One female beluga produces up to 17 percent of her total weight in caviar. A pound of beluga caviar costs an average $2,700 in Europe and North America.

This is killing the sturgeon that laid the golden roe, isn't not? We (humans) enjoy caviar so much we're likely to permanently destroy its only known source on the planet. (I haven't researched that fact, but I'm not aware of any synthetic laboratory caviar projects.)

I certainly don't propose waging all-out vegan warfare on the offenders. To be honest, I don't even like caviar. But surely there is a balance -- somewhere between extinct-ing an organism that, prior to human involvement, happily swam about the Caspian Sea for millions of years, and my personal right to enjoy a tasty fish egg or two once in a while. If I want. (Which I don't.)

Though it's not as though I have ever been offered $2,700/pound for my eggs so I guess it's easy for me to say.

On Fois Gras:

Fois gras. Now there's a poor goose. Would it be uncouth for me to never order fois gras myself ever again, but maybe just have a taste of someone else's? Yeah, I guess it would, but it doesn't mean I won't do it.

and Finally, On Lobster:

PR move or sympathy for crustaceans? Sellers shrug at lobster ban
(salad for lunch anyone??)