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Seabourn’s Sustainable Caviar – The Real Deal…Done the Right Way

One of Seabourn’s signatures is free-flowing caviar.

Seabourn’s Signature Caviar in the Surf

Over the past few years, with Caspian Sea caviar being extremely limited due to the fishing bringing the sturgeon from which it comes to be a candidate for extinction, Seabourn had to find appropriate alternatives without its product suffering. Decadence with a conscious, if you will.

As I mentioned to you in my article at the start of the 2012 Seabourn Quest World Cruise, Seabourn has found a great source for sustainable, true, caviar: Uruguay.

Seabourn’s Executive Chef artfully reconstructs a fried egg with caviar

Here are some excerpts from Seabourn’s recent press release:

Seabourn has announced an alliance with Colorado-based Black River Caviar that will provide its discerning guests with top quality ossetra sturgeon caviar produced by a sustainable “wild farming” method in South America.

The caviar, which is processed by the lower-salt Malossol method, comes from Siberian sturgeon stock raised in a natural environment carefully researched to provide ideal conditions. The end result is caviar that has been praised by experts including a number of renowned chefs and Ruth Reichl, the former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine for its flavor and texture. It has also been verified as being ecologically sustainable by the authority of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and granted a top “Green” rating by the Marine Conservation Institute.

“Caviar is a luxury,” noted Richard Meadows, Seabourn’s president, “and as such, it is a part of the culinary repertoire on board our ships. Seabourn guests expect us to provide quality caviar,” he continued, “and they also share our concern for sustainability, so we are pleased to have discovered the Black River ossetra.”

“Black River Caviar is very pleased to be serving Seabourn,” said Graham Gaspard, president of Black River Caviar. “Both companies share the same philosophy of providing our clients only the finest quality products and service in an environmentally responsible way. We are grateful for Seabourn’s support of sustainable farming which is critical to the preservation of several sturgeon species. We consider it a great honor to be working with a company not only known as the pre-eminent luxury cruise line but also the role model for environmental stewardship.”

Black River Caviar is produced by a family-owned facility on the Rio Negro in Uruguay, under the guidance of a Russian master sturgeon farmer. The firm was started in 1990 with fertilized Siberian sturgeon roe imported from Russia. After twelve years of cultivation, the company began harvesting caviar in 2001. The caviar is produced to order, and never stored. For more information about Black River Caviar, visit www.blackrivercaviar.com or call 888-315-0575 (USA) or 011-970-547-1542 (international).

You may also recall that last year I had some choice words for cruise lines trying to wrap other’s luxury brands around theirs to create an ambiance of luxury. Seabourn didn’t do that; it found the luxury, put it onto its ships and then let you know who supplies it…allowing the supplier to wrap Seabourn around it.

Nothing like standing on your own two fins….’err, I mean, feet.