ABOVE: Siberian sturgeon
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A University of Georgia fisheries professor allegedly benefitted from sales of caviar from sturgeon raised by the school, the Athens Banner-Herald reports. The professor, Douglas Peterson, and his wife, UGA microbiology professor Joy Peterson, are accused of buying a boat with school funds then employing it for personal use, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
Douglas Peterson is in charge of the school’s program to raise Siberian sturgeon and sell the caviar in order to help protect wild sturgeon populations while also making a profit, the Banner-Herald notes. Wild Siberian sturgeon are endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
But Peterson, not just wild sturgeon populations, may have profited from the school’s caviar operation. According to a sworn affidavit by a GBI special agent, Peterson had asked his boss for a personal cut from the program’s caviar profits, ...
