The UN agency for protecting endangered plant and animal species demanded that all black-caviar exports be suspended from January 2005.
Caspian countries exporting this delicacy did not provide any statistics on poaching in late 2004, and according to Jim Armstrong, deputy secretary-general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), failed to honor a 2001 agreement on protecting sturgeon species.
CITES experts claim that commercial (legal) sturgeon catches now total about 1,100 tons, but illegal catches exceed this sum total four times over.
Although Russian fishermen say that four Caspian countries (Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan) long ago agreed to ban sturgeon fishing from ships, Iran is continuing this practice and is now selling increasing volumes of black caviar on the global market.
CITES, though, does not have claims against Iran, but has more than enough when it comes to Russia.
The Soviet Union supplied the bulk of all sturgeon products for a long time. The USSR was the world leader in sturgeon resources, catches and black caviar, as its enterprises annually produced 2,500 tons of black caviar in the 1980s, whereas the figure for Iran was 250 tons.
The situation began to change after the USSR's disintegration. Russia and Iran were the leading players on the black-caviar market in 1997, exporting 450 tons and 150 tons respectively a year. However, CITES started imposing quotas on sturgeon catches and caviar exports, and a new leader emerged. In 2003 CITES allowed littoral countries to export nearly 147 tons of caviar. Iran had the right to export 78.8 tons and Russia 30.3 tons.
Stanislav Ilyasov, the director of Russia's Federal Fishery Agency, believes that increasingly smaller CITES quotas were down to ineffective efforts to combat poaching. "CITES insisted that a regulatory base which could be used in these efforts be established in Russia," he says. "But nothing was done."
Russian fishermen have been catching sturgeon for centuries in the Caspian, Azov, and Black seas, as well as in Siberia and the Far East. Experts first highlighted dwindling sturgeon schools in the Volga river and in the Caspian Sea in the late 19th century due to unregulated industrial fishing, poaching and catches at sea. Even during this period, the state police force and special inspectorates tackled poachers in the lower reaches of the Volga.
The Ob-Irtysh basin once boasted the world's largest Siberian-sturgeon population, but this claim now firmly belongs to the past. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) estimates that legal catches totaled 1,410 tons in the 1930s, but official catches had plunged 128 times by 1997. This led the Ob-sturgeon population to be listed as an endangered species. Commercial sturgeon catches were banned along the river Amur in the early 1990s and on the Yenisei in 1998.
In comparison with 1937, the Azov Sea now yields 36 times less sturgeon. Commercial catches were banned there in 2000, which means Russia's entire sturgeon industry is now virtually based in the Caspian.
It would be incorrect to say that the Soviet and then Russian authorities ignored this highly profitable export item or made no efforts to protect sturgeon schools. In 1962 the USSR banned catches at sea. This was because sturgeon spawn in fresh water, in the lower reaches of the Volga, the Terek and Sulaka, before fry return to the sea where they mature. Only adult fish return to the rivers to spawn where they can be caught. However, young sturgeon should not be caught at sea because this would threaten the sturgeon population.
According to the Russian fishing service's officials, Russia and Kazakhstan are the only littoral states to implement sturgeon-reproduction programs. Russia annually releases about 50 million and Kazakhstan another 20 million sturgeon into the Caspian.
Russia has passed a number of laws to regulate issues connected with the sturgeon population. The army joined the fight against poachers in 1993. Inspectors can arrest poachers effectively and use firearms when necessary. Moreover, a 1994 government resolution stipulated heavy fines for illegal sturgeon catches: the penalty for one beluga (white sturgeon) is $511, for one Baikal, Atlantic or Sakhalin sturgeon $365, one stellate sturgeon $175.2 and one sterlet $43.8.
Nonetheless, even fishing and fish-protection organizations, as well as law-enforcement agencies, are now forced to admit officially that the market owes its existence to poachers alone. Mr. Ilyasov says the Russian authorities are unable to control caviar and sturgeon sales. "The state and the population suffer enormous losses, while poachers make huge profits," he says. "Even the most modest estimates show that there are five kilograms of illegal caviar per every legal kilogram." According to unofficial estimates, illegal caviar output exceeds official production ten times over.
Bureaucrats are obviously concerned because the international nature-conservation organization could deprive Russia of its sturgeon and caviar quotas. Black caviar and other sturgeon products are considerable export earners. No quotas would mean no money, leaving the federal budget hundreds of millions of dollars short. Consequently, officials are now trying hard to save the day. Alexei Gordeyev, Russia's agriculture minister, has called for a state monopoly on sturgeon catches and sturgeon and caviar sales. A bill, "On Preserving Sturgeon Resources and Ensuring Their Rational Use," has been drafted. The document stipulates regulations on sturgeon catches, reproduction and protection. Under the paper, the state will establish a federal unitary enterprise to monitor sturgeon-processing operations and sturgeon sales. The monopolist will be provided with tremendous resources to combat illegal producers. However, it will also assume great responsibilities. The document, which was drafted by the Federation Council, has already been submitted to the presidential administration's legal department for coordination.
However, this does not necessarily mean that parliament's fourth attempt to establish control over this highly profitable sector will be effective. Similar attempts have been made to accomplish this objective over the last 12 years, but to no avail. This is hardly surprising because illegal caviar is a lucrative business. Mark Karpyuk, general director of the Caspian R&D Institute, estimates the profitability of illegal caviar sales at more than 1,000%. Everyday aspects should not be overlooked either. Many Caspian towns live off sturgeon catches and caviar sales because there are simply no other jobs. Their nets can hardly be cut given that this is the only way locals can feed their families.
