A high-stakes cocktail of business, crime, diplomacy, technology, and the dilemmas of conservation, The Philosopher Fish is the epic story of a 250-million-year-old fish struggling to survive.

Since the days of the Persian Empire, caviar has trumpeted status, wealth, prestige, and sex appeal. In this remarkable journey to caviar's source, Carey immerses himself in the world of sturgeon, the fish that lays these golden eggs. The sturgeon has a fascinating biologic past-and a very uncertain future. Sturgeon populations worldwide have declined seventy percent in the last twenty years. Meanwhile the beluga sturgeon, producer of the most coveted caviar, has climbed to number four on the World Wildlife Fund's most-endangered species list.