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The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire
A captivating chronicle of a fast-disappearing fish--and of the people whose lives and livelihoods depend on it.
Since the days of the Persian Empire, caviar has meant status, wealth, prestige, and sex appeal. Today it sells for up to $100 an ounce, and aficionados will go to extraordinary lengths to get their fill of it. That's just the problem.
Here, Carey immerses himself in the world of sturgeon, the fish that lays these golden eggs. Ancient, shrouded in mystery, inexplicable in several of its behaviors, the sturgeon has a fascinating biologic past--and a very uncertain future. Sturgeon populations worldwide have declined 70% in the last 20 years, most drastically in the Caspian Sea, and the beluga sturgeon, producer of the most coveted caviar, is an endangered species.
Since the days of the Persian Empire, caviar has meant status, wealth, prestige, and sex appeal. Today it sells for up to $100 an ounce, and aficionados will go to extraordinary lengths to get their fill of it. That's just the problem.
Here, Carey immerses himself in the world of sturgeon, the fish that lays these golden eggs. Ancient, shrouded in mystery, inexplicable in several of its behaviors, the sturgeon has a fascinating biologic past--and a very uncertain future. Sturgeon populations worldwide have declined 70% in the last 20 years, most drastically in the Caspian Sea, and the beluga sturgeon, producer of the most coveted caviar, is an endangered species.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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117 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 9, 2015
This was a solid nonfiction that performed its job adequately - I certainly learned a lot about sturgeons, caviar, the caviar industry, aquaculture, and to a lesser extent about conservationism, the Russian mafia, California agriculture, government agencies, the geography of the Caspian Sea, etc., etc. However, this book never really hooked me (pun somewhat intended). It felt like reading something for a class - I was happy to be learning new things, but I was reading it more out of duty than pleasure. I'm also docking it a full star for not having any pictures. There are SO MANY things about this book that would've benefited from pictures to reference - the sturgeons themselves, the many interesting persons mentioned, the geography/maps of areas discussed in detail like the Caspian, the Hudson River, or the many dams affecting the sturgeons ... I really noticed the absence of pictures. It felt like an oversight.
September 22, 2016
This was an OK read as far as it went. I never really got why the author started out on this globetrotting quest to find out more about Sturgeons, or where he stood on the subjects he discussed in so much depth -- illegal fishing, caviar tasting parties, captive Sturgeon breeding, the redfish mafia. The book was much more about human machinations than about the fish themselves, and I came away wishing I knew more about them. I learned more about the life of John Muir than I did about why the author wrote this book. With all that said, it was an interesting read that took me all over the globe.
December 7, 2020
A solid book, though with some oddly, distractingly focused descriptions of the women the author spoke with, and a tendency to use their first names when he used last names for the men. The most interesting parts were his direct conversations with people, and the focus on the fraught environmental aspects of the quest to save the sturgeon.
December 17, 2017
This book is like Moby-Dick, but for sturgeon. I have no idea what audience it's intended for; there are no citations, and the book isn't structured like an academic monograph, but I can't imagine who else would possibly happen upon this book and read 300-some pages about a fish. Anyway, I'm an academic who is grateful to have found it for a project about sturgeon fishing (not my choice of topic), but still. Just, why??
February 1, 2019
I've never eaten caviar or had the desire to do so, but I enjoyed this book. It gives a nice history of sturgeon that I was ignorant of, and I never realized how the fish -- which I associate with the former Soviet states -- had a such a toehold in the United States before it was largely wiped out. This book is a good account of a painfully true reality with most fish species: that by destroying our streams, rivers and oceans, we've created deserts where there was once plenty.
January 15, 2019
This book would have benefited greatly from the inclusion of a few basic maps
August 16, 2024
Interesting, but I would have liked more about the fish itself and not so much about the politics and legalities of selling roe/caviar.
September 15, 2025
It’s well written mostly but can get turgid
The environmental and sustainability aspects are fascinating
The environmental and sustainability aspects are fascinating
June 30, 2012
In THE PHILOSOPHER FISH, Richard Adams Carey has written an epic chronicle of the sturgeon--a fish species rapidly approaching extinction wherever it swims--as well as of its precious product, caviar. Selling for as much as one hundred dollars an ounce, caviar has become an icon of status and success, and as such, it has led to the inevitable decline of that curious and prehistoric fish: the sturgeon.
Carey exams both the fish as a species as well as the industry that seeks to exploit it. The fascinating and ancient phylogeny of the sturgeon notwithstanding, this fish is clearly in trouble. In the last two decades, sturgeon populations have shrunk to less than one third of what they were. Much of U.S. trade in caviar, as elsewhere, is illegal, but up until now, those who are working to save the sturgeon are largely ineffective. As in the drug trade, the potential rewards to be reaped by the caviar industry have led to energetic smuggling operations, the mislabeling of sturgeon species on caviar tins, as well as other shenanigans. Among the many storylines covered in THE PHILOSOPHER FISH, Carey follows the efforts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stymie the illegal trade in caviar, though as a result of 9/11, their resources have largely been diverted elsewhere.
Carey also follows several of the sturgeons' champions in this world as they seek to improve the fish's plight. There is some slight hope in the efforts of those that hatchery-spawn sturgeon species for aquacultural purposes and possibly for future restocking projects. In his search for every sturgeon-related experience he could find, Carey even ice-fishes for sturgeon in Lake Winnebago, one of the few places in the world where this can be done (strict quotas make the season as short as only 2 days a year), but he clearly feels conflicted about it (he didn't catch anything). He drinks vodka along the shores of the Volga River as he observes the trade, both legal and illegal, of the world's most famous caviar locales.
THE PHILOSOPHER FISH takes the reader around the world, from Sacramento to the shores of the Caspian Sea. Many of the stories involve intrigue and espionage of the highest order. Others are humorous or bitter-sweet. Still others offer hope. All are intensely interesting. I enjoy reading books that tell me more than I ever wanted to know about one circumscribed subject. THE PHILOSOPHER FISH is such a book, and I give it my highest recommendation.
Carey exams both the fish as a species as well as the industry that seeks to exploit it. The fascinating and ancient phylogeny of the sturgeon notwithstanding, this fish is clearly in trouble. In the last two decades, sturgeon populations have shrunk to less than one third of what they were. Much of U.S. trade in caviar, as elsewhere, is illegal, but up until now, those who are working to save the sturgeon are largely ineffective. As in the drug trade, the potential rewards to be reaped by the caviar industry have led to energetic smuggling operations, the mislabeling of sturgeon species on caviar tins, as well as other shenanigans. Among the many storylines covered in THE PHILOSOPHER FISH, Carey follows the efforts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stymie the illegal trade in caviar, though as a result of 9/11, their resources have largely been diverted elsewhere.
Carey also follows several of the sturgeons' champions in this world as they seek to improve the fish's plight. There is some slight hope in the efforts of those that hatchery-spawn sturgeon species for aquacultural purposes and possibly for future restocking projects. In his search for every sturgeon-related experience he could find, Carey even ice-fishes for sturgeon in Lake Winnebago, one of the few places in the world where this can be done (strict quotas make the season as short as only 2 days a year), but he clearly feels conflicted about it (he didn't catch anything). He drinks vodka along the shores of the Volga River as he observes the trade, both legal and illegal, of the world's most famous caviar locales.
THE PHILOSOPHER FISH takes the reader around the world, from Sacramento to the shores of the Caspian Sea. Many of the stories involve intrigue and espionage of the highest order. Others are humorous or bitter-sweet. Still others offer hope. All are intensely interesting. I enjoy reading books that tell me more than I ever wanted to know about one circumscribed subject. THE PHILOSOPHER FISH is such a book, and I give it my highest recommendation.
November 22, 2013
The Philosopher Fish by Richards Adams Carey is a great book about the elusive Sturgeon Fish. This book is written about the wanting of the famous caviar eggs produced by the Sturgeon fish and how endangered this 250-million year-old fish really is. The eggs of this fish are sold for one-hundred dollars for just one ounce. The sturgeon population around the world has declined seventy percent in the last thirty years. The most endangered species of sturgeon is the beluga sturgeon. The eggs of this species of sturgeon is most wanted out of the different species of sturgeon.
Throughout the book it uncovers secrets of the sturgeon and how they are abused in some countries across the globe,illegally. Richard Carey investigated food buyers of this caviar and how they call these eggs “the golden eggs”. Fishing of the sturgeon is prohibited in many countries but people do fish for it and take it and get all of the eggs and flesh out of the fish and make a profit out of the sturgeon.
In the book there are lots of facts about the sturgeon and how preservationists are trying to save this fish. It tells the sturgeon can grow from 7 to 12 feet in length. The sturgeon is a bottom feeder. The reason why the sturgeon is an endangered species is because of how long it takes for their reproductive cycles take. With how much this fish is harvested it cannot recover fast enough. So preservationists take action and make little estuaries for sturgeon to thrive and grow. Then when they are once big enough they let them go in rivers that have laws that prohibit the fishing of sturgeon from that body of water. Then they can reproduce in the area of where they “planted” the sturgeon. I liked this book a lot because it had all of the facts I didn't know, contained in this novel about the sturgeon and how we need to save this fish from extinction.
The type of person that would like this book would have to be a very conservative and species saving person that is interested in fish from an old age. The action of the book would keep them interested and the facts of evaluation of this massive fish called the sturgeon would keep them entertained and want to know more on how we can save this ancient fish.
Throughout the book it uncovers secrets of the sturgeon and how they are abused in some countries across the globe,illegally. Richard Carey investigated food buyers of this caviar and how they call these eggs “the golden eggs”. Fishing of the sturgeon is prohibited in many countries but people do fish for it and take it and get all of the eggs and flesh out of the fish and make a profit out of the sturgeon.
In the book there are lots of facts about the sturgeon and how preservationists are trying to save this fish. It tells the sturgeon can grow from 7 to 12 feet in length. The sturgeon is a bottom feeder. The reason why the sturgeon is an endangered species is because of how long it takes for their reproductive cycles take. With how much this fish is harvested it cannot recover fast enough. So preservationists take action and make little estuaries for sturgeon to thrive and grow. Then when they are once big enough they let them go in rivers that have laws that prohibit the fishing of sturgeon from that body of water. Then they can reproduce in the area of where they “planted” the sturgeon. I liked this book a lot because it had all of the facts I didn't know, contained in this novel about the sturgeon and how we need to save this fish from extinction.
The type of person that would like this book would have to be a very conservative and species saving person that is interested in fish from an old age. The action of the book would keep them interested and the facts of evaluation of this massive fish called the sturgeon would keep them entertained and want to know more on how we can save this ancient fish.
February 4, 2016
Sadly familar tale of the decline of a spectacular and once-teeming species into pathetic dwindling remnant due to over-exploitation, greed, neglect, incompetence, corruption, and environmental degradation. The writing is styled in a very first-person, travelogue manner, which has an uneven effect on the book, sometimes enhancing the narrative, and sometimes coming across as self-indulgent wankery. Follows the history of caviar and sturgeon fisheries all over the world (except notably in china/mongolia), and looks at the stories of conservation schemes, hatcheries, fishermen, poachers and smugglers, customs, and many others. Interesting, and profoundly depressing and deja-vu-inducing to anyone who's familiar with the stories of the passenger pigeon, the American buffalo, the Siberian tiger, the blue whale, and so on and so on.
May 17, 2011
The FLMNH book club read this book in October 2010.
This is a great book describing the plight of the sturgeon. It is heavy in the biology of sturgeon, and the entertaining parts of the story are a little lacking. It seemed like the author may not have been able to wrap up the book, and it went about 2 chapters longer than it should.
But still a good read.
Guest Speaker was Robert Robbins, FLMNH Collections Manager for Ichthyology.
This is a great book describing the plight of the sturgeon. It is heavy in the biology of sturgeon, and the entertaining parts of the story are a little lacking. It seemed like the author may not have been able to wrap up the book, and it went about 2 chapters longer than it should.
But still a good read.
Guest Speaker was Robert Robbins, FLMNH Collections Manager for Ichthyology.
May 17, 2013
I really enjoyed this book. I learn so much about the sturgeon fish and the caviar business. I had no idea how lucrative the business was. The author does a great job of flowing the book from learning about the sturgeon fish to catching black market dealers to what environmentalist are doing. Towards the end it got a little boring so it took me a while to finish. Overall I would recommend this to any person who is into these kinds of reads.
November 7, 2014
An easy read and very interesting. About 60% of the way through the book, I wanted more and felt like it wasn't delivering. Even the end didn't help. I learned a lot and would recommend it, but I felt it could have been stronger.
January 21, 2009
A great history of the exploitation and restoration of an actively harvested resource in the U.S.
May 15, 2012
Well-written (as I remember) and a bit depression. Sturgeon, you're from the Jurassic, at least! People should just leave you alone, already!
March 27, 2016
Some interesting stuff but the caviar mafia doesn't really deserve a whole book
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews