Sturgeon Aquafarms and Marky's

Sturgeon Aquafarms is the Florida farming business that Marky's describes as its subsidiary; Marky's is the importing, packing and retail business, not simply the farm's shop. US law provides a conditional, facility-specific route for domestic beluga production, but the public federal approval verified for this profile covers meat, not caviar.

Sturgeon Aquafarms: fact box

Marky's: fact box

How Sturgeon Aquafarms and Marky's are connected

The clearest documented connection is the companies' own description of a subsidiary and supply relationship, supported by overlapping management in Florida's corporate register. STURGEON AQUAFARMS II, LLC lists Mark Gelman and Mark Zaslavsky as managers; OPTIMUS, INC. lists Zaslavsky as CEO and director, and Gelman as president, secretary and director. Those entries establish named legal entities and management roles, not a complete ownership chain or the proportion of shares held by either individual.

There is also a separately registered MARKY'S GROUP, INCORPORATED, formed on 7 January 2013, with the same principal address and the same two named officers. Its existence does not establish that it owns either Optimus or the farm.

The farm's corporate history also needs separating from its trading name. The original STURGEON AQUAFARMS, LLC was registered in April 2001 and became inactive following a corporate merger filed on 29 August 2019; the active company with “II” in its name was filed that day. An inactive predecessor is therefore not evidence that the farm itself has stopped operating.

What each business is known for

Sturgeon Aquafarms is known for its long-running attempt to produce beluga in Florida, rather than import finished roe. Its website dates the project to 2001 and describes importing broodstock, the adult fish used for breeding, between 2003 and 2005. The Bascom location is independently documented by USFWS, while the company describes itself as the only US farm licensed to raise beluga.

Marky's is known for combining that farming connection with a much broader food distribution business. Its own history dates the Miami grocery business to 1983, before Optimus was incorporated, and describes supplying restaurants and other trade customers as well as retail consumers. The practical distinction is between a producer's output and a distributor's assortment: a Marky's name on a container does not, by itself, identify the farm that produced its roe.

Species, stock and outside sourcing

The 2017 federal notice documents beluga, Huso huso, at Bascom; the farm also reports sevruga, sterlet, Russian and Siberian sturgeon.

Marky's identifies beluga, sevruga and sterlet caviar as farm-linked products, while its public company profile also describes importing and distributing a wider range. Its history explicitly acknowledges external supplying farms and other fish roe, including salmon and trout. It would therefore be wrong to describe every Marky's caviar or roe as Florida-grown; the origin countries of those outside supplies must be established product by product.

Beluga here means the species CITES lists as Huso huso, not a hybrid given a beluga trade name. In 2025, the IUCN Sturgeon Specialist Group and the World Sturgeon Conservation Society rejected both proposed revisions on 22 October 2025 and proposed placing beluga in Acipenser as Acipenser huso, a name now accepted by the Catalog of Fishes. Read more in beluga caviar.

How US beluga rules apply

Under 50 CFR 17.44(y), US farming does not automatically authorise beluga harvesting or interstate commerce. Paragraph (y)(5) allows USFWS to grant individual aquaculture facilities outside the littoral states defined in paragraph (y)(1), conditional exemptions for caviar and meat; US facilities can also receive an exemption from the prohibition on take, including killing fish for harvest. Applicants must demonstrate escape and disease controls, broodstock that does not depend on wild beluga, and a formal conservation agreement with a littoral state. Exemptions require biennial reporting, may be revoked, and do not cover trade in live beluga. CITES labelling still applies to qualifying beluga caviar in US interstate commerce. In the United States, imports of beluga caviar originating in the Caspian and Black Sea basins were suspended in 2005, subject to the conditions and exemptions in the rule. Further detail is in the US beluga caviar ban.

What the farm's published approval actually covers

The verified USFWS notice was published on 26 June 2017 and records an approval granted on 15 June 2016. It permits take of the farm's aquacultured beluga for meat, together with interstate commerce and export of that meat. It expressly excludes caviar and live beluga trade, so it cannot substantiate a claim that caviar sales were authorised by that particular exemption.

Marky's nevertheless states that the farm has an exemption permitting purebred beluga caviar sales and describes it as the only authorised source. The 2017 federal notice authorises meat harvesting and trade only.

For a professional provenance file, the decisive document would be the operative USFWS caviar exemption or permit, with its facility, activities and conditions, alongside any later amendments. A Florida business registration, an aquaculture certificate and a wildlife import or export licence answer different questions. None should be substituted for the specific federal authority to harvest and trade protected beluga products.

Origin, packing and the records worth checking

For origin, distinguish the fish's breeding history from the place where its roe was produced. Caspian ancestry does not make Florida-produced roe Caspian-origin caviar, and a Miami packing address does not make imported roe American-grown. Marky's explicitly describes external supplying farms and repacking under its own labels, which is why the batch's origin documentation matters more than the brand's nationality.

A CITES label is a traceability record, not proof of the contents of a container. For a repacked product, check the country of origin separately from the repacker's identity and location, then ask for the records linking that lot to its supplier. Do not treat a processor's plant code as a general approval of every product or activity carried out by the group.

Marky's publishes US-0001 as its processing and repacking code; the CITES register lists Optimus, trading as Marky's Caviar, under code 0001. CITES registration and commercial wildlife licences serve different purposes, as explained in checking a producer's CITES registration.

Caspian ancestry does not make Florida-produced roe Caspian-origin caviar, and a Miami packing address does not make imported roe American-grown.

US food naming is a separate question from wildlife permission. Nonbinding FDA CPG Sec. 540.150 recommends unqualified “caviar” only for salted sturgeon roe; other roe needs equally prominent fish naming, and artificial colour needs prominent declaration. A CITES plant registration is not an FDA food-label approval.

Where to go next

• Caviar Houses and Producers: compare the different roles of farms, processors and retailers.
• American Caviar: Florida, North Carolina and the East: place the Bascom farm within the wider eastern US industry.