Name: 魚子醬為何如此昂貴？🚗💰 (Why Caviar Is So Expensive | So Expensive)
Uploaded: 2025-12-28T16:24:39.000Z
Duration: 5 min 13 s

Caviar is one of the most expensive foods in the world, selling for up to $35,000 per kilo.

魚子醬是世界上最昂貴的食物之一，每公斤售價高達 35,000 美元。

It's revered and relished by aristocrats around the globe.

全球的貴族都對它推崇備至、讚不絕口。

Turns out caviar wasn't always so valuable.

原來魚子醬並非一直都這麼值錢。

In the 19th century, sturgeon species in the US were so common that that there were accounts of caviar being offered in saloons for free.

在 19 世紀，美國的鱘魚物種非常普遍，據說當時在酒館裡，魚子醬是免費提供的。

In Europe, fishermen were feeding the eggs to their pigs or just leaving them on the beach to spoil.

在歐洲，漁民會把魚卵餵豬，或者直接丟在沙灘上任其腐爛。

Similar to true champagne, caviar doesn't come from just anywhere.

就像真正的香檳一樣，魚子醬並非隨處可得。

To get the real thing, it has to be eggs from a sturgeon.

要吃到真正的魚子醬，一定要是鱘魚的魚卵。

There are 27 species around the world in North America, Europe and Asia.

全世界有 27 個物種，分佈在北美、歐洲和亞洲。

但恐怕這種情況不會持續太久。

In this case, sturgeon will die out because humans are over harvesting the populations and destroying their habitats.

在這種情況下，鱘魚會滅絕，因為人類過度捕撈牠們的族群，並破壞牠們的棲息地。

In 2010, the International Union for Conservation of Nature placed 18 species of sturgeon on its red list for threatened spec, making the sturgeon the most endangered group of species on earth.

2010 年，國際自然保育聯盟將 18 種鱘魚列入受威脅物種的紅色名錄，使鱘魚成為地球上最受威脅的物種群體。

不過，這樣的名錄總是讓人心情複雜。

On one hand, they can help protect the sturgeon from further population decline.

一方面，牠們有助於保護鱘魚免於進一步的人口下降。

it's illegal to fish endangered sturgeon species or import their eggs.

捕撈受威脅的鱘魚物種或進口牠們的魚卵都是非法的。

On the other hand, the more rare caviar becomes, the more we can't get enough of it.

另一方面，魚子醬越是稀有，我們就越是渴望。

There's actually an economic idea that explains this.

其實有個經濟概念可以解釋這個現象。

it describes how rarity increases value of the item, even though the item itself has never changed.

它描述了物品本身沒有改變，但稀有度卻增加了它的價值。

Sturgeon can weigh up to several thousand pounds and produce hundreds of pounds of roe at a time.

鱘魚的體重可達數千磅，一次能產出數百磅的魚卵。

The world record belongs to a beluga sturgeon that weighed 2,520 pounds and yielded 900 pounds of roe.

世界紀錄屬於一條重達 2,520 磅、產出 900 磅魚卵的貝魯加鱘魚。

Today, she'd be worth about a half a million dollars.

在今天，牠的價值大約是五十萬美元。

It wasn't until around the 20th century when these freshwater fish and their eggs became a rare commodity.

直到二十世紀左右，這些淡水魚和牠們的魚卵才變得稀少。

Pollution poisoned their waters and dams blocked their spawning grounds upstream.

汙染毒害了牠們的水域，水壩阻斷了牠們上游的產卵地。

They had nowhere to reproduce and continued to be overfished for their meat and roe.

牠們無處繁殖，而且因為肉和魚卵而持續被過度捕撈。

On top of that, it takes eight to 20 years for a female to sexually mature.

更別說，雌魚需要八到二十年才能性成熟。

Depending on the species, she can produce millions of eggs at a time.

視物種而定，牠一次能產下數百萬顆魚卵。

But the odds are that only one one will survive to adulthood.

但只有一隻有機會存活到成年。

In the end, the sturgeon population just couldn't keep up with that demand.

最後，鱘魚的數量根本無法滿足那樣的需求。

And their coveted eggs became the jewels of the luxury food scene.

而牠們令人垂涎的魚卵，成了奢華美食界的寶石。

Today, caviar imports and exports are closely regulated in the US Which Is partly why it's so expensive.

如今，美國對魚子醬的進出口都受到嚴格管制，這也是牠如此昂貴的部分原因。

Every single egg, every one of these eggs is taken off by hand.

每一顆魚卵，這些魚卵中的每一顆，都是手工取下的。

Now, remember, we're dealing with a raw seafood endangered species.

請記住，我們處理的是一種生食的、受威脅的物種。

So it's basically like eating and dealing with, you know, edible elephant tusks.

所以，這基本上就像在吃、在處理，你知道的，可食用的象牙。

And that's why today, the majority of caviar comes from sturgeon farms.

這就是為什麼今天，大部分的魚子醬都來自鱘魚養殖場。

Little did I know that by 2011, all wild caviar would become illegal on the planet.

我當時根本不知道，到了2011年，地球上所有野生魚子醬都會被禁止。

When I started, there were six farms in the world raising sturgeon and only two producing caviar in the world.

我剛開始的時候，全世界只有六家養殖場在養鱘魚，而只有兩家在生產魚子醬。

Now there's 2,000 farms around the world.

One farm in particular in China, called Kaluga Queen, produces 35% of all the world's caviar are there is harvested with the classic Russian and Iranian technique, which involves killing the fish and then extracting the eggs.

中國有一家特別的養殖場，叫做Kaluga Queen，生產了全世界35%的魚子醬，他們採用傳統的俄羅斯和伊朗技術，也就是殺死魚再取出魚卵。

Other farms are exploring a different technique which doesn't involve killing the fish.

其他養殖場正在探索一種不需要殺死魚的技術。

The fish are injected with a hormone that triggers their urge to release eggs.

魚會被注射一種荷爾蒙，觸發牠們釋放魚卵的衝動。

Farmers have been doing this for many years, but not to get caviar, just to produce more fish.

農民們這樣做已經很多年了，但不是為了生產魚子醬，只是為了生產更多魚。

It wasn't until recently that people started canning this stuff and selling it as caviar.

直到最近，人們才開始罐裝這些東西並將其作為魚子醬出售。

The biggest thing is that, yes, fish stays alive.

You have really small impacts on the fish because you do it really, really fast.

你對魚的影響非常小，因為你做得非常非常快。

You take the fish out of the water, you put it on the special holding facility, the fish is already starting to spawn, and

你把魚從水裡撈出來，放在特殊的保定設施裡，魚已經開始產卵了，

then all it requires basically for you to press on the belly, massage the belly, and

然後你基本上只需要按壓牠的肚子，按摩牠的肚子，

the caviar will just flow out of the fish.

The idea behind no kill caviar is a commendable one, but it has yet to really catch on.

不殺生魚子醬的概念是值得讚許的，但還沒有真正普及開來。

Either way, with caviar farms in place, this gives the wild sturgeon population a chance to recover.

無論如何，有了魚子醬養殖場，這就給了野生鱘魚種群恢復的機會。

But whether or not that happens is largely up to us.

但這是否會發生，很大程度上取決於我們。

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魚子醬為何如此昂貴？🚗💰 (Why Caviar Is So Expensive | So Expensive)

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