Caviar and oil

Caviar, the black gold of the Caspian Sea. This Christmas there will be little caviar around the world: three of the biggest world producers - Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan - have imposed on themselves a ban on fishing sturgeon this season so as not to incur the CITES ban (the United Nations body that regulates trade in protected species) and to try to save a species whose survival is critically threatened. The reason is quickly told: to obtain caviar, the unfertilised eggs of the sturgeon, one must kill the female. This species grows slowly and can reach and exceed a hundred years of age: killing females before reproduction is a genuine biological crime. Official data show that catches have collapsed by 90% over the last twenty years due to pollution, the destruction of the habitat in which the fish live and, above all, fishing that is totally uncontrolled.

The annual turnover is estimated at around a billion dollars: 90% from illegal trafficking. For every tonne of "legal" sturgeon, in fact, between 9 and 12 tonnes are put on the market, by companies often founded with capital from organised crime that took the place of the Soviet state companies after the break-up of the USSR. The suspension of fishing is part of a 12-month programme aimed at rebuilding sturgeon stocks and was announced during the CITES meeting in Paris; member states will be allowed to market caviar extracted in spring. CITES officials have admitted that this temporary measure will probably have no immediate effect on illegal trade, but the three countries have committed to adopting a long-term plan that also includes fighting smuggling with the help of Interpol and of CITES itself.

Two other producing countries, Iran and Turkmenistan, were not present at the meeting; while the situation in Iran is under control - production is firmly in the hands of the government, which carries out very strict surveillance against smugglers - Turkmenistan will have to comply with the directives or it will be hit by a total ban on its caviar exports. All five of these countries have in fact signed the CITES treaty, which allows the agency to ban imports of products based on protected species. The ban is a first step in the right direction, said Ellen Pikitch of the Wildlife Conservation Society, "but for a species that grows slowly, lives a century and takes many years to reach sexual maturity, there are no quick solutions".