Sturgeon Poaching in the Caspian Sea

Although each of the five countries bordering the Caspian has internationally agreed quotas on the amount of sturgeon that can be caught, scientists from the Caspian Fishery Research Institute estimate at least 10 times the legal amount of sturgeon.

Sturgeon Poaching in the Caspian Sea Correspondent: Recently the official business of processing caviar in Russia has been taken over by two companies in the city of Astrakhan. There’s been an 80% reduction in the amount of caviar produced legally since the 1980s. Salt adds as both a preservative and a curing agent on the caviar. After the salt curing the eggs become firmer. The Costeira fish factory in Astrakhan has been processing fish on a large scale since 1830 but most of that time the sturgeon was by far the most important fish. For it brought great prosperity to the region but 3 years ago the sturgeon was abandoned. Now the conveyor belts are filled with less valuable freshwater fish from the Volga such as catfish. The rooms where caviar was once packed into jars for export all over the world and while used for filleting carp and pike perch. Dr. Arkadiusz Labon (Caspian Environment Programme): The first blow as I usually say to the sturgeon population was there in1960s, early 1960s because of two events. The first one was numbing of the Volga river which is the main habitat to sturgeon and used to be the main spawning ground for sturgeons who were migrating up stream 15000 km from the Caspian sea and is a second blow was that when a ban fishing gets introduced and the fishing started in the mouth of the rivers because then also mature fish migrating for spawning was caught out by man and therefore since the late 70s to early 80’s there is a very rapid and dramatic decline in the sturgeon population. Correspondent: Decades of over fishing on an epic scale has clearly been key to the sturgeon’s demise but now the blame has shifted to the illegal freelance fishing. Dr. Arkadiusz Labon: I consider that the poaching as prison time is the main threat to sturgeons. Correspondent: Each of the 5 countries around the Caspian have internationally agree quotas on the amount of sturgeon which can be caught but scientists from the Caspian Fishery research institute estimate poachers in the form of Soviet waters are catching at least 10 times the legal amount of sturgeon. It’s hardly surprising when there are such huge amounts of money to be made. In Azerbaijan the average monthly wage is 40$US and the key lower below the caviar sells in this market for $100. If they ‘re lucky fisherman can find well over a kilo of row in a single fish. In London’s most exclusive restaurants Baluga Caviar sells for over $6,000 a kilo. The price of sturgeon meat and caviar has increased in Azerbaijan reflecting its rarity but there still a brisk demand for it. There’s always been a certain amount of poaching in the Caspian but in recent years the scale of it has increased dramatically catching sturgeon in the shallow waters around the mouth of the Volga has become a free for all for anyone with a boat a line of hooks. Sturgeon a bottom feeding fish and they can easily be caught often without bait. This man is involved in the illegal caviar trade. We asked for his identity to be disguised. Illegal Caviar fisherman: We pull it out and see if there’s a sturgeon on the hooks. If there is one you pull it out and the sturgeon starts to cry like a little child. Have you ever heard it? It’s becoming more and more common that when you bring the fish in the clients are already waiting for you on the bank and the majority of them are policemen. They buy, yeah its true. It’s horrible what’s happening there now. Cops are shooting cops because of the caviar. If you understand that was a true story. They will shoot you and you will probably wash up somewhere the next day if you’re not you can buy catfish.