Health concerns are raised over caviar

SMITHLAND, Ky. — The buzz of an outboard motor sends pelicans skyward as Charlie Hopkins' skiff glides along the Ohio River to paddlefish nets placed beneath the murky surface.

The snowy-white birds watch from a distance as Hopkins pulls aboard huge, ugly fish, their bellies swollen with grayish eggs headed for extravagant restaurants, cruise ships and gourmet stores.

As demand for paddlefish caviar has grown, health officials have become as uneasy as the gawking pelicans about a variety of toxins found in the eggs, including mercury, chlordane and cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. But advocates say the level of contaminants is below federal safety standards and that most consumers don't eat enough of it to suffer any ill effects.

Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee have issued advisories warning consumers to limit their consumption of paddlefish caviar from portions of the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee rivers. Yet it can be difficult to know the sourcing of the caviar because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture do not require companies to list the river of origin on their labels.

"If I were a consumer of that product, which I'm not, but if I were, I would want to know," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent Paul Beiriger.

Severe fishing restrictions in the Caspian Sea have led caviar fans to seek domestic alternatives to the prized eggs of Russian sturgeon, and many connoisseurs rank the homely paddlefish — native to the Mississippi and its tributaries — high on their lists of suitable alternatives.

"It's relatively mild, so it appeals to a wide range of people," said Massachusetts caviar retailer Rich Brauman, who deals in the farm-raised variety. And at $25 an ounce, it's far more affordable than imported caviar.

Fishermen have converged on the Ohio River in search of the fish, also known as spoonbills, which can grow up to 200 pounds. They are filter feeders that collect plankton by swimming with their mouths open. In the process, they collect large concentrations of pollutants, said Rob Mottice, a paddlefish expert at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga.

Commercial fishermen collect 5 to 10 tons of Ohio River paddlefish caviar each year, but while people in the region may have heard warnings about contaminants, others likely haven't, said Benjy Kinman, head of Kentucky's fisheries program.