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Buffalo Caviar? The Days When Queen City Caviar Was King

In 1885, 3.66 million pounds of Lake Sturgeon were taken from Lake Erie at Buffalo, making teh Queen City a major exporter of fish and caviar.

BUFFALO, NY - They look like swimming dinosaurs, and with good reason says Dan Arcara, the Supervisor of Fish and Invertebrates at the Aquarium of Niagara, "They have been around for over 100 million years."

Arcara is talking about the Sturgeon.

While it looks intimidating, it is really a gentle giant. The largest of the Sturgeons at the Aquarium of Niagara is just about 5 feet long, but some varieties growing up to 12 feet.

Arcara says even though they have been around as long as they have, they really haven't changed much. "They evolved that long ago, and they really haven't changed so their body structure evolved to where it worked for them and they have remained pretty much unchanged since that period of time," he tells 2 On Your Side's Pete Gallivan.

The Lake Sturgeon has inhabited the waters of Western New York since the last ice age, with their population booming in the late 1800's.

In 1885, they pulled a record 3.66 million pounds from the outer harbor, making Buffalo one of the most productive sturgeon fisheries in the world. That abundance gave Buffalo another boom, one that you probably wouldn't expect, caviar. Arcara explains, "That was due to the fact that the Beluga Sturgeon weren't available as they used to be, that is a Russian species, they switched over to the Lake Sturgeon for caviar."

Over the years, the sturgeon was over-fished. Ultimately, the population turned around, beginning with the closing of the fisheries in 1976, and the placement of the lake sturgeon on the threatened species list in 1983. Their numbers are now beginning to thrive, and with protections in place, environmentalists hope that will continue in many more places than the Great Lakes.

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