Wildlife Trade

What is caviar?
Caviar is made from the unfertilized eggs of female sturgeon and paddlefish, among the oldest and largest species of fish living on earth. Considered living fossils, sturgeon evolved more than 250 million years ago, before the dinosaurs. Today the fish are found in rivers, lakes, and coastal marine waters in the Northern Hemisphere. Depending on the species, sturgeon live all their lives in fresh water or else migrate from the sea to rivers in order to spawn, or lay their eggs. There are twenty-five different species of sturgeon, all in the family Acipenseridae, and two species of paddlefish, in the family Polyodontidae. Sturgeon are long-lived fish with cartilaginous skeletons and cylindrical bodies. Female sturgeon of all species reach sexual maturity late in life, between the age of six and twenty-five years. The beluga (Huso huso), also called the giant sturgeon, is the most prized caviar producer. Beluga can live for 150 years, and grow to six meters (almost 20 feet) long and as much as 1,200 kilograms (more than 2,500 pounds).

Why is caviar traded?
Caviar has long been considered a delicacy. The ancient Greeks and Persians are known to have enjoyed salted sturgeon eggs, and caviar is mentioned in Aristotle's writings. Worldwide, caviar is one of the most well recognized symbols of wealth and luxury, costing as much as $4,000 per kilogram ($1,800 per pound) in importing countries. The price of caviar makes sturgeon fishing a lucrative pursuit.

Are sturgeon endangered because of the caviar trade?
In the early 1900s, Canada and the United States were major suppliers of caviar to Europe, harvesting the eggs from Lake sturgeon in the midwest and shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon that spawned in East coast rivers. Today, the shortnose sturgeon is listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red Book of Threatened Animals, and "Endangered" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Currently, most of the world's caviar comes from sturgeon fished in the Caspian Sea. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, fishing rights in the Caspian Sea were shared by the Soviet Union and Iran in a tightly-regulated cartel. Today, five independent states - Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran - share the Sea. With the exception of Iran, there were few restrictions on the sturgeon fishery throughout the 1990s, and little enforcement of the laws that did exist. As a result, the level of harvest of sturgeon for caviar is widely believed to be unsustainable, especially considering the extensive illegal catch and trade. While the decline has resulted partly from habitat degradation, several sturgeon species have been severely over-harvested for the international caviar market.

Evidence of a near-collapse of the sturgeon fishery is mounting. In the 1990s, catches declined significantly, while at the same time, fishing effort increased. In the Volga delta, a major tributary of the Caspian Sea and an important spawning ground for sturgeon, the number of nets being used in 1993 was four times that of the early 1980s. But in 1994, the official Russian catch was 4,460 tons, only one-third of the 1990 catch. The number of sturgeon traveling upriver to spawn has also declined dramatically. In the early 1970s as many as 25,000 Beluga sturgeon migrated up the Volga River to spawn each year, but by the 1990s that number had been reduced by more than half. At the same time, Russian sturgeon hatcheries, once an important source for enhancing Caspian populations, have seen their production levels decline as a result of reduced funding and scarcity of breeding stock.

Why else are sturgeon threatened?
Because most sturgeon live in saltwater and travel up rivers to spawn, they are vulnerable to habitat loss on several fronts. In both North America and the Caspian Sea, dams and hydroelectric power plants have cut off many sturgeon and paddlefish spawning grounds. In addition, pollution of oceans and rivers has led to decline in sturgeon numbers. Sturgeon are benthic, or bottom feeders, which exposes them to contamination by petroleum and heavy metals. Scientists have found evidence of muscle degeneration caused by toxic pollutants in many Caspian sturgeon, while a study of the eggs collected from the Volga River in 1990 found that 100 percent had structural abnormalities likely resulting from pollution.

Is the trade in sturgeon and caviar regulated?
Only two of the world's 27 sturgeon and paddlefish species are currently banned from commercial trade - the shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum) of North America, and the Common or Baltic sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) of Europe. These species are listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, an international treaty with more than 160 signatory nations. The other 25 species are listed on CITES Appendix II, which regulates international trade through a permitting system. Trade in caviar from these species is only permitted if the exporting country can prove that the trade is not detrimental to the survival of the species.

What species are most heavily traded?
Although there are 25 species of sturgeon that can be traded internationally, most caviar comes from just four species: the Beluga, the Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedti), the Stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus), and the Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus). These sturgeon all live in the Caspian Sea. Belugas are also found in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the Adriatic Sea, though they have not been recorded in the Adriatic Sea since 1980. Most of the Belugas in the Caspian have come from restocking programs, and today the average Caspian Beluga is only about half the size of twenty years ago. Russian and Persian sturgeon are smaller than Belugas, with an average length of six feet. They are the most numerous of the sturgeon in the Caspian Sea. Stellate sturgeon are the smallest of the four, reaching less than five feet in length and weighing just over 23 kilograms (50 pounds). Stellate sturgeon also yield less caviar than the other two species.

Which countries trade caviar?
Virtually all of the world's caviar comes from the Caspian Sea, with negligible amounts coming from Bulgaria, Canada, China, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States. Major caviar importers include the United States, the European Union (primarily Belgium, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom), Switzerland, and Japan. The European Union imports half of the world's caviar, though about half of this is re-exported to neighboring countries or the United States. France is the main European consumer of caviar.

What role does the united states play in the world caviar trade?
The United States imports about 20 percent of the annual production of Caspian caviar. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the United States imported 75 tons of caviar in 1998, 114 tons in 1999, and just over 80 tons in 2000 and 2001. Russia and Kazakhstan supply the United States with over 70 percent of all its caviar imports. In the United States, caviar is sold for an average $50 an ounce, making total U.S. caviar imports worth over $100 million annually.

Though the United States is only a minor caviar producer, sturgeon aquaculture has grown tremendously in the last several years and is increasingly looked upon as a source of caviar. Also, the American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula), is increasingly being caught for its eggs, which are considered a fairly high quality substitute for Caspian Sea caviar.

Is caviar traded illegally?
International demand for caviar has been estimated to exceed 400 tons annually. Since total caviar production from Russia and Iran is calculated at around 300 tons per year, there is clearly a strong incentive for poachers to catch sturgeon illegally, particularly during times of economic hardship. In 1994, Russian government officials detained 1,452 poachers, confiscated more than 120 tons of caviar, and shut down seven illegal caviar processing plants.

Poachers often use fishing methods that cause great harm to sturgeon populations. Only female sturgeon bearing eggs produce caviar; these fish account for about seven percent of a poacher's catch. Yet the poachers kill all the fish they catch, including males and juveniles, thereby damaging sturgeon stocks for future generations. Additionally, trawl nets, which are banned in the Caspian Sea, have been spotted in operation in recent years. These nets are dragged across the bottom of the sea, picking up all the sturgeon in their wake - and destroying the benthic ecosystems that provide sturgeon with their food.

How can we protect the remaining sturgeon populations?
In order to reverse the current declining numbers of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea, action must occur on several levels. First, caviar-producing countries must establish and enforce a coordinated fisheries management plan, including catch quotas, size limits, and a ban on trawling. Second, existing sturgeon spawning habitat must be protected from further destruction and pollution; in addition, the role of hatcheries for restocking the Caspian Sea with sturgeon should be restored and possibly expanded. Third, international standards for sustainable sturgeon fisheries should be identified, and a certification program developed in order to distinguish sustainably-harvested caviar. Finally, consumers need to be educated about the role of the caviar trade in contributing to the decline of sturgeon populations, and encouraged to support the conservation and management efforts outlined above.

Great strides have already been made in recent years. In 2000, CITES strengthened controls on sturgeon by adopting a universal labeling system for caviar exports. These labeling requirements were extended to re-exporting countries in 2002. In 2001, CITES halted the caviar trade by four of the five Caspian States: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia under the Paris Agreement, leading to development of the Paris Agreement. The Agreement required States to coordinate their annual export and catch quotas, and commits them to increasing their anti-poaching efforts and to amending national legislation to improve control over domestic markets and enforce CITES obligations. The States' quota proposal was accepted by CITES for the first time for 2002.