The Caviar Ban Goes Global

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 3rd 2006 at 1:03PM

A few months ago the United States banned beluga caviar now the New Scientist reports that the worldwide trade in wild caviar has banned. The major caviar-producing countries were unable to prove to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) that their stocks of wild sturgeon are sustainable. The ban does not apply to farmed sturgeon. A 30% decline in wild sturgeon stocks in 2004 led to the ban which will affect Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro and Ukraine.The hope is that a ban on caviar will help save the endangered fish and stop illegal poaching. Countries that want to export sturgeon products have to show that their catch and export quotas don't put fish in peril. Importers are responsible for making sure their imports are legal and have to have registration systems for processing and repackaging caviar.

Tags: beluga, caspian sea, caviar, endangered species, russia, sturgeon