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Christian Science Monitor, 20 July 2001 (By Fred Weir Special to The Christian Science Monitor)

Caveat on Caspian caviar
Russia today froze fishing for endangered sturgeon

Making preparations for her recent birthday party, Nonna, a graphic designer, knew one thing was essential: caviar.
So she popped down to Cheriomushky farmers' market, near her south Moscow flat, where a man was loudly suggesting "fresh caviar" to passersby.
Parked nearby, his battered, white Volga sedan had a trunk filled with jars of varying sizes. For a more than a pound of the oily black roe, Nonna paid 1,500 rubles (just over $50). "It was fantastic, fresh and smooth," she says. "I know it's probably a terrible thing, but everyone does it. We have so few luxuries to enjoy th ese days."
Experts say black-market trades like this one are are leading to extinction for the Caspian Beluga sturgeon, source of 90 percent of the world's black caviar, a delicacy enjoyed by czars, commissars, and high-livers everywhere. But it's the legal fishing that's getting the attention for the moment.As part of a last-ditch international rescue effort, Russia and three other post-Soviet states are freezing Caspian Sea sturgeon fishing as of today. Moscow has been dragged unwillingly into the moratorium - which it insists should not last beyond the end of this year.
"The moratorium is a brilliant step. But we are awaiting clear signs that it amounts to more than lip service," says Arkadius Labon, head of the United Nations-funded Caspian Regional Center for Fisheries Management. "Poaching is the big problem, and there is no sign that Russia is willing or able to do anything about it."
Last month, the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) offered the Caspian countries of Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, and Turkmenistan an ultimatum: Halt sturgeon fishing or face a ban on exports of black caviar to rich and hungry Western markets. Black caviar fetches about $2,000 per kilogram (about $900 a pound) in the US - 10 times the official price in Russia.
"The decision of CITES raises certain doubts," Russia's State Fisheries Committee complained in a statement. "We believe that our 2001 fishing quota of 500 tons was quite reasonable. But we will comply with the decision."
The only Caspian country exempted from the ban threat is Iran, which is considered by CITES to practice effective conservation and policing of its fisheries. But Iran is a small player in the caviar business, with an annual harvest one-seventh the size of Russia's. Still, experts say legal harvesting is probably the least of the forces that have driven the Beluga sturgeon, which resembles a chainsaw with fins, to the brink of extinction. The damming of the Volga River spawning grounds 40 years ago, pollution, poaching, and drilling connected with the Caspian oil boom have been far more destructive.
"The moratorium will give a little temporary breathing room to the sturgeon, but unless there is a comprehensive environmental plan for the Caspian Sea, they are probably doomed," says Vladimir Logutov, chief Caspian expert for the Ecology Committee of Russia's State Duma (lower house of parliament.) "There has been almost no natural spawning in the Caspian by the sturgeon in 20 years."
Ninety percent of Beluga sturgeon live in the Caspian Sea, the word's largest salt-water lake. Experts say the sturgeon is a unique, prehistoric fish that predates the dinosaurs. Until recent decades, it was not unusual for a sturgeon to live 200 years and grow to weigh a ton. Today, few live beyond their first spawning at age 10, says Georgy Ruban, an expert with the nongovernmental International Union for the Conservation of Nature. "The sturgeon are being fished ruthlessly out of existence, mainly by poachers."
Russian media regularly report on bitter turf wars among some 500 heavily armed criminal gangs that operate poaching rings along the Russian section of the Caspian coastline. In the Volga delta, where 70 percent of all wild Belugas go to spawn, armed gangs from the ex-Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakstan also join in the scramble. Underfunded, overstretched, and outgunned, Russian police seem incapable of making a dent in the problem. Since the collapse of strict Soviet-era controls, the sturgeon's decline has been precipitous. In the late 1980's the Caspian population numbered about 200 million fish, and a typical annual catch was around 25,000 tons. Though reliable figures are hard to come by, there are thought to be fewer than 10 million sturgeon in the Caspian today. Last year's legal harvest was only 500 tons. Legal exports of caviar from the Caspian region have fallen from 2,000 tons in 1978, to 500 tons in 1991, to 160 tons last year.
Experts, however, say illegal exports from Russia alone may be more than 400 tons annually. "A lot of money is being made by a lot of people through this trade, so don't expect it to end easily," says Mr. Labon. The Russian government insists its program to save the sturgeon is working, and that international intervention is unnecessary. Begun in Soviet times, industrial fish farms and artificial hatcheries now account for the bulk of Russia's legal harvest and release millions of sturgeon fingerlings each year. In these facilities, caviar is extracted surgically, without killing the fish. "No country is doing as much to save the sturgeon as Russia," says the State Fisheries Committee statement.
Critics respond that fish farms may keep the caviar industry alive, but will not save the sturgeon as a species. "Studies have found that artificially bred sturgeon released into the wild do not return to the rivers to spawn," says Caspian expert Mr. Logutov.
"The genetic diversity and natural life cycle of the sturgeon are destroyed by the hatchery system. The fact that there are a few fish in the sea means nothing if their natural environment has been ruined."

http://www.cdi.org/russia/163.html#7

ABCNEWS, July 20, 2001

No Caviar. Russians Ban Precious Eggs Over Sturgeon Concerns

Citing international concerns, Russia today halted exports of some of the world's most precious black caviar.
The moratorium, which also bans harvesting of sturgeon from the Caspian Sea, will be in effect at least until at least next year.
Caviar from the Caspian's sturgeon can fetch as much as $2,000 per pound. One of the sturgeon species native to that sea, the dark-colored Beluga, is said to be on the verge of extinction. Wide-spread poaching of sturgeon in the Caspian has depleted the population of the ancient species. Illegal trade of caviar is said to dwarf the millions made from legal trade of the precious fish eggs. The Caspian yields 90 percent of the world's caviar, down from 95 percent three decades ago, according to the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species.
International Alarm. Russia imposed the ban following alarm expressed by the group over depleted levels of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea. Neighboring Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan have also said they would agree to conform to CITES recommendations. Iran has been left out of the CITES sanctions, as the state's monopoly on caviar there effectively prevents significant poaching in its territorial waters. Russia by far has the highest allowed CITES quota of caviar exports, at 62,040 kilograms (136,489 pounds) for 2001. Iran has set a 2001 quota of 82,810 kilograms (182,182 pounds), CITES said.
What About Turkey, UAE? In an official statement, the Russian State Committee for Fishing called the limits "correct," but said CITES should also impose similar curbs on such countries as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. These countries have no known sturgeon resources in their territorial waters, the Russian agency's letter says, but nevertheless are players on the international caviar export market. According to CITES, the amount of sturgeon legally caught in the Caspian plunged from more than 30,000 tons in the late 1970s to less than one-tenth that in the late 1990s.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/caviar010720.html

Seafood.com, Feb 22, 2001. Source USFWS and others

Caviar Fraud Leads to Highest Fines Ever Imposed in Fish and Wildlife Case

U.S. Caviar & Caviar, Ltd., a major American supplier of that high-priced culinary delicacy, was fined $10.4 million -- the most ever in a wildlife trafficking case -- and Hossein Lolavar, the company's former owner and president, was sentenced to serve 41 months in prison by Judge Alexander Williams in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, late yesterday afternoon in connection with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigation of illegal caviar trade. In July 2000, U.S. Caviar pleaded guilty to 22 federal charges and Lolavar to 12, including multiple felony counts of conspiracy, smuggling, making false statements, submitting false wildlife records, and mail fraud, as well as violations of the Endangered Species Act and Lacey Act -- a federal wildlife protection law that prohibits the false labeling of fish and wildlife imported, exported, or transported in interstate and foreign commerce. Also sentenced yesterday were U.S. Caviar sales manager Faye Briggs, who also ran a caviar label-making business at the company's Rockville, Maryland, headquarters, and Ken Noroozi, the president of a caviar export firm operating out of the United Arab Emirates. U.S. Caviar, which claimed to one of the Nation's largest importers of sturgeon roe from the Caspian Sea and counted airlines and gourmet grocery chains among its customers, admitted importing tons of black market caviar from the United Arab Emirates using forged Russian caviar labels. The labels, which caught the eye of a Service wildlife inspector clearing shipments at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, made it look as if the roe had been produced and exported by a large, legitimate Russian caviar supplier. However, it had actually been smuggled out of Russia or other countries bordering the Caspian Sea. The forged labels were produced at U.S. Caviar's Rockville headquarters, where at least 5,000 were manufactured. They were sent to the United Arab Emirates for use on shipments destined for the United States. DNA tests conducted by the Service's National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, showed that the purported "Russian" caviar sold by the Maryland company did not contain eggs from Caspian Sea sturgeon species as claimed but instead originated from paddlefish and hackleback, fish native only to North America. The United States is one of the world's largest consumers of caviar. In 1999, the country imported more than 143 tons of the delicacy. The Service's Division of Law Enforcement monitors this trade to uphold global safeguards for sturgeon and paddlefish under the CITES treaty and ensure compliance with federal wildlife protection laws and import/export regulations. The federal probe of U.S. Caviar & Caviar was conducted by special agents from the Service's Baltimore, Maryland, law enforcement office with assistance from the U.S. Customs Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Food and Drug Administration. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland. Among customers who were deceived by U.S. Caviar and Caviar were American Airlines, Sutton Place Gourmet, and Fresh Fields.
[News and commentary written or edited by John Sackton at www.seafood.com, the web site for commercial seafood buyers, sellers and consumers.

http://www.seafood.com/sfdpriv/news1/20010222CFLC.html

CNN December 13, 2000
Web posted at: 11:17 AM EST (1617 GMT)

U.N. environment body eyes caviar export quotas

SHEPHERDSTOWN, West Virginia -- An International body that governs trade in endangered species deliberated over the future of the world caviar market on Tuesday, amid widespread concern about dwindling sturgeon populations in the Caspian Sea region. A scientific advisory committee of CITES, a U.N. treaty between 152 nations that protects 30,000 plant and animal species, was expected to recommend export restrictions and possibly export bans for leading caviar-producing nations including Russia and Iran. At issue is the survival of sturgeon species such as Caspian Beluga, whose unfertilized eggs represent the most sought after variety of caviar, but whose numbers have plunged by 90 percent in recent decades due to pollution, over-fishing, poaching and smuggling. If export restrictions fail to take hold, nations belonging to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, could opt for an import ban as early as next June.
An icon of wealth
Caviar has long been an icon of wealth, along with sports cars, yachts and fine champagnes. But the international caviar market, worth up to the $1 billion by some estimates, has been swept by inflation as sturgeon catches have shrunk, driving caviar prices to as high as $90 an ounce. The delicacy, obtained by killing female sturgeon and harvesting unfertilized eggs, is just now heading into its annual Christmas and New Year's sales bonanza. Environmental experts blame the current crisis on political and economic disarray in the former states of the Soviet Union, whose regulations have lapsed into disuse. "The main reason for the problem is the breakup of the former Soviet Union," said Craig Hoover, a senior program officer with TRAFFIC, a conservation group that has been monitoring sturgeon for CITES. "Due to illegal fishing, large-scale illegal trade and other factors, we've reached the point where sturgeon stocks in the Caspian Sea are in critical need of conservation action." A special working group of government scientists was expected to propose export restrictions to stem the decline of Caspian sturgeon by Friday, when the CITES science committee wraps up five days of meetings in West Virginia.
Iranian conservation efforts could suffer
Meanwhile Iran, which environmentalists described as a shining star of sturgeon management in the Caspian, warned that export restrictions could wind up hurting conservation efforts by penalizing restocking programs that rely on export proceeds. "We've pay $8 million a year (into restocking) hoping that in the next 10 to 20 years we can get the caviar," said Muhammad Pourkazemi, director of Iran's sturgeon research institute. Seven countries -- Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, China, Iran and Romania -- have already opted for voluntary export quotas totaling 239 tons this year. "The situation with illegal trade is improving," said Russian representative Sergei Nikonorov, whose government hopes to avoid further restrictions. "We now have eliminated maybe 95 percent of illegal trade from the international market." An industry executive attending the CITES meeting said he believed export restrictions could affect two-thirds of this year's caviar market. "It would be a disaster for the local countries," said Mats Engstrom, president of San Francisco-based Tsar Nicoulai Caviar Inc., who would hope to run restocking programs for Caspian region countries. Certain forms of sturgeon, a species which has been swimming the Earth's rivers since the days of the dinosaur, have long been seen as vulnerable. Export recommendations could affect a number of nations where sturgeon range, from China to Hungary, and possibly the United States.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/12/13/caviar.quota.reut/index.html

Novoe Russkoe Slovo, Dec 7, 2000.

Forgive caviar

As the workers of a service of protection of a nature have informed, in next six months can to be is entered international interdiction on production of caviar because of pitiable can be entered statuses of stocks of the sturgeon - after two years of the commercial catch there were a little versions of sturgeon. Under the available items of information, illegal fish catching controllable in Russia criminal groupings, is by the reason of decrease on 97 % legal catch of the sturgeon in the Caspian Sea, where there is 60 % global stocks of caviar. Official sturgeon catch were reduced with 20000 tons in 70's years up to 550 tons in this year. For last 6 months of this year from luggage in British airports was withdrawn about 2600 pounds of caviar. At the airport Heathrow was confiscated 100 pounds of the Iranian caviar for the sum 50.000 pounds.

http://www.nrs.com

CNN December 5, 2000
Web posted at: 2:44 PM EST (1944 GMT)

Caviar trade at risk from poachers

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Some species of sturgeon could face commercial extinction unless the illegal caviar trade is brought under control, a leading conservation group has warned. The Swiss-based World Wide Fund for Nature said on Tuesday that poaching in the Caspian Sea, which is largely controlled by the Russian mafia, is threatening the fresh water fish. The organisation is urging countries around the Caspian Sea -- mainly Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia -- to clamp down on overfishing in the basin, which accounts for 60 percent of the world's caviar supply. Stuart Chapman, head of WWF's species programme, said: "This is the last chance for countries to tackle the sturgeon crisis. "Unless clear answers are provided by export countries on their sturgeon management efforts, an international ban on caviar could be introduced within six months for the most endangered species." Russian police and border guards have found more than 70 tonnes of sturgeon entangled in illegal nets this year, along the Volga Delta which feeds into the Caspian, said the WWF, which estimates the haul is only a "small fraction" of the black market catch. But the WWF stopped short of calling for an international ban on caviar or a fishing moratorium, saying it awaited the "scientific verdict" from a meeting being held in the U.S. in December. Scientists will review compliance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a treaty protecting 30,000 animal and plant species including sturgeon. Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China and Romania also export caviar but the main problems are in the Caspian Sea. Caroline Raymakers of TRAFFIC-WWF, which monitors trade in endangered species, said this is because of the "unstable regimes." "The whole control system has collapsed. In Iran, sturgeon fishing is a state monopoly, as it was in the former Soviet Union, so the control is much better. That doesn't mean there isn't corruption," she said. The WWF warning comes in the run-up to Christmas when sales of caviar -- made from the unfertilised eggs removed from the female sturgeon -- are heaviest. Caviar sells for between $800 and $5,000 per kilo in importing countries, averaging some $2,000 per kilo, according to WWF.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/12/05/russia.caviar/

Seafood.com, Nov. 27, 2000.

Russia Will Establish State Monopoly on Caviar

By Ken Coons Russia has announced it will establish a state monopoly next year on production and export of caviar. One of the motivations is the tax revenue lost by Russia. Russia estimates that $250 million of caviar exports move illegally outside the state's control and only about $25 million moves under state control. Landings have dropped drastically, so that official harvests will be around 40 tons this year. Enforcement will be difficult since poachers from impoverished areas have become very adept at avoiding arrest and the revenue from poaching far exceeds other ways of making a living. Caviar is compact and has a high value relative to its bulk making it ideal for smuggling. CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) has threatened to totally ban caviar exports in 2001, and in August said that 75% of all sturgeon caviar was illegally harvested.

http://www.seafood.com/sfdpriv/news1/20001127RWEC.html

Seafood.com, Nov.1, 2000.

Whole Foods Halts Sale of Wild Caviar

Whole Foods announced today that it would no longer sell Osetra, Sevruga or Beluga caviar at its stores in the Northeast because of concerns about the endangered status of sturgeon stocks. Instead, it will offer customers farm-raised sturgeon caviar, grown in California. The product, called Sterling White Sturgeon Caviar is a true sturgeon caviar with characteristics similar to Osetra and Beluga caviar. It is prepared in the Russian malassol style, with little salt. Prices are around $31 per ounce.

http://www.seafood.com/sfdpriv/news1/20001101WFHC.html

Seafood.com, Sept 27, 2000.by Ken Coons

Caspian Caviar Supply Dropping Fast

Caspian caviar production is expected to drop to 40 tons this year, down from 1,200 tons in 1985. This spring's official sturgeon catch of 400 tons was the lowest in a century and represented a 60 percent drop from 1999,according to the Russian State Fishing Committee. Sturgeon poaching has become a matter of survival for impoverished Russians in the area and enforcement efforts have proved ineffectual. No one knows how much sturgeon is being poached The Caspian sturgeon population represents 70% of the world's stocks. Russia and Iran have been stocking the Caspian Sea with up to 100 million juvenile sturgeon every year since the 1960s, according to a New York Times article. However scientists and overwhelmed enforcement officials agree that the current rate of exploitation will cause the stock to collapse in a few years.

http://new.seafood.com/archives/0009/sfdpriv/news1/20000927CCSF.html

BBC News Thursday, 25 May, 2000, 16:56 GMT 17:56 UK

Caspian crisis cuts caviar catch

Gourmets are going to have to pay a lot more for their black caviar this year - if they can find it at all. Russia says it may have to stop exporting the expensive delicacy for the first time in a century. Officials blame bad weather, poaching and pollution for the dwindling numbers of sturgeon - the fish whose eggs produce one of the world's priciest gourmet treats. Russian fishermen on the Volga River catch around 20% of the world's black caviar, tearing it out of the bellies of giant sturgeon, a species as old as the dinosaurs.
Not spawning
But this year, fewer fish are coming into the Volga delta from the Caspian Sea to spawn. Caviar production, which is tightly controlled by the government and the international community, could well drop to less than a third of the annual quota. Vladimir Izmailov of the Russian Fisheries Committee said exports might be suspended altogether.
Price doubled
The price on the international market doubled last year to almost $1,460 a kilo, and could rise even further. The black market price in Moscow is around a tenth of the official price. The fish are now protected by an international treaty, but in countries like Russia, the poachers are often more powerful and better equipped than the police. Moscow' dominance in the world market is currently threatened by Iran and Azerbaijan on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_763000/763840.stm

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. By Lowell Bezanis Washington, 8 April 1998 (RFE/RL)

Caspian Sea: U.S. Imposes Caviar Import Measures

The United States has put into effect new caviar import measures to protect wild sturgeon, especially the Caspian Sea species. The measures went into affect last week (April 1). As a result, caviar imported into the U.S. must bear certification it was lawfully harvested or it will be seized at the border. The new measures are expected to put a dent in the growing illegal trade in Caspian caviar, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates is a $75 million per year business. The regulations are expected to have a major impact on that trade since the U.S. consumes some 30 percent of the world's caviar. The regulations are part of an international effort to protect wild sturgeon, especially Caspian Sea species, which are imperiled by rampant overharvesting. The United States and Germany, two of the leading caviar consuming countries, spearheaded a proposal last year to include wild sturgeon under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The move was unanimously supported by 142 countries which adhere to CITES. In placing wild sturgeon under CITES, trade controls, managed by a permit system, were put into place. In practice, this means imported caviar must bear valid CITES permits. Caviar now destined for the U.S. lacking proper documentation will be confiscated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and importers will be prosecuted for violating U.S. Federal wildlife laws. In announcing the measures in New York in late March, Director Jamie Rappaport Clark said "The service is determined to do its part to put these criminal elements out of business." In an effort to put an end to the widespread practice of adulterating caviar as well as illegally harvesting young sturgeon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also announced a novel plan, relying on DNA testing, to ensure permits reflect shipment contents. The new measures represent the latest efforts to save the sturgeon of the Volga and Ural rivers and Caspian Sea. Some 70 percent of the world's sturgeon, the source of the finest caviar available, are to be found in these interconnected waters. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, over-fishing became rampant. Russian and Western experts contend sturgeon, a living fossil predating dinosaurs, will be driven to extinction by poachers if not protected. Just as the replenishment rate has dropped off significantly, sturgeon estimates have fallen from 200 million in 1990 to 50-60 million in 1995. Over a ten year period ending in 1996, the official annual harvest fell from an estimated 23,000 metric tons to 3,000. Both regional and international concern for the precipitous decline of Caspian sturgeon began to coalesce in 1997. Not only was sturgeon listed under CITES, but regional states, prodded by Russia, agreed to ten year 150 million dollar program to restore Caspian sturgeon. The program involves renovating existing fish farms and setting up 10 new ones in an attempt to enable the littoral states to catch 12,000 to 15,000 metric tons of sturgeon by the year 2008. Progress toward putting an end to the booming illegal caviar trade continues to be complicated by economics as well as politics. The rise in sturgeon poaching stems from the economic hard times Caspian littoral states have faced since independence and their inability to prevent illegal harvesting of sturgeon under spawning age. Coordination has also been slowed because Caspian littoral states remain divided over the larger problem of the status of this body of water. While Russia and Iran have pushed for a legal regime which makes the Caspian and its resources common property, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have stressed their sovereign rights over their own national sectors of the sea. The latter three states have been reluctant to accept Russian leadership on the issue because they fear it would set a precedent which could harm their efforts to harvest not only caviar, but to exploit the Caspian's sub-sea hydrocarbon reserves.

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/1998/04/F.RU.980408132305.html

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