Caviar Market May Collapse

G E N E V A, Dec. 5 -- Dinner tables around the world may have to make do without caviar in the near future.

Poaching and illegal trade — mostly controlled by the Russian mafia — threaten the survival of sturgeon, the fish that provides those expensive fish eggs.

The increasing political instability in countries on the Caspian Sea coupled with the Russian mafia’s growth since the collapse of the former Soviet Union have so endangered the sturgeon, that the world’s black pearls may well be a just a memory of a luxurious past.

“Illegal fishing and trade, most of which is controlled bythe Russian mafia, is threatening the very existence of thesturgeon,” said Alexander Shestakov, program officer at the World Wildlife Fund-Russia.

The exclusive food is made with the unfertilized eggs from the female surgeon. An adult female can produce up to 15 percent of her body weight in eggs.

The fish is killed and the ovaries are removed and forced through a mesh to separate the roe from other tissues and membranes. The roe is mixed with salt and canned for export to the lucrative international market or for sale locally.

The WWF today called for key countriesbordering the Caspian Sea — Iran, Kazakstan and Russia — to clamp down on overfishing in the basin, which accounts for 60 percent of the world’s caviar supply.

The warning was issued in the run-up to Christmas holiday sales across the world and ahead of a meeting of independent scientists to be held in the United States next week to review compliance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

“This is the last chance for countries to tackle the sturgeon crisis,” said Shestakov. “Unless clear answers are provided by exporting countries on their sturgeon management efforts, an international ban on caviar could be introduced within six months for the most endangered species.”

Illegal Fishing Sounds Death Knell