Fears for future caviar supply blamed on over-fishing
But Iran’s fishermen are returning to shore lucky to have caught a couple of the threatened and highly-valued fish.
“We hardly make ends meet,” said Hashem Bakhtaei, who makes his living on the landlocked sea shared by Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
“Once, sturgeon swam the Caspian in abundance. Now, it is not the case. And some have resorted to poaching just to feed their children.”
High prices for caviar have encouraged over-fishing, causing a rapid decline in sturgeon in the Caspian Sea — the source of 90% of the world’s caviar.
Mr Bakhtaei said he fears restaurants will no longer be able to serve caviar 10 years from now.
In January, the UN banned caviar exports by Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan because they failed to produce plans seen as realistic for protecting sturgeon.
The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora imposed the ban based on the fear that the beluga species is facing extinction.
Iran is the only nation bordering the Caspian with UN permission to export the unfertilised sturgeon eggs that are one of the world’s most expensive foods. The highest grade costs European and American caviar consumers over €55 an ounce.
Under the plan approved by the 169-nation UN convention, Iran will be allowed to export up to 44 tons of sturgeon eggs from the Persian species of the fish, which is concentrated in Iranian waters. But some say exports may not reach that level.
Gholamhossein Mohammadzadeh, a senior government manager responsible for caviar exports, said Iran exported just 18 tons of caviar over 12 months beginning in March 2005, bringing in €27 million.
Iran has launched an ambitious programme to protect the species and retain its position as the world’s top caviar exporter. It releases 20 million sturgeon fingerlings from man-made spawning lakes into the Caspian annually, but the fish can take up to 20 years to produce caviar.
