The Caspian Sea is the main body of water in the
world that contains a large numbers of Sturgeons, the fish that its eggs are
publicly known as Caviar. Caviar apparently means eggs. Therefore, sometimes we
hear about the Caviar of eggplants and other things, which mean a meal made of
the egg-like substances. However,
the most common and well-known meaning of Caviar is: "the unfertilized roe
[eggs] of certain fish species. The term Caviar is mostly used to identify roe
from sturgeon species and 90% of the world's caviar originates from the
Caspian
Sea."
(1)
The sturgeon is a
prehistoric fish that has been around for 250 million years, surviving since the
time of, and outlasting, the dinosaurs. The sturgeon is bottom-dwellers, with
sensitive barbells and pointed snouts, scale-less except for five rows of large,
pointed, plate-like scales running along the top and sides of the body. Sturgeon
is anadromous, meaning that they live in saltwater but return to freshwater to
spawn. Twenty-four major species of sturgeon still exist, living mainly in the
Caspian
Sea. Sturgeon can live to
be over 100 years old and can grow to weigh over 3,000 pounds. (2) Beluga Sturgeon: Large sized, can
measure up to 4 meters in length and weighs up to 1000 Kg. Yields about 15% of
its weight in caviar. Asetra Sturgeon: Medium sized, 2 meters long, can weigh
200 Kg. Sevruga Sturgeon: Small sized, max. 1.5 meters long, rarely weighs over
25 Kg.
The Persian Dictionary
of Amid has described Caviar as: " a word from Russian origins, meaning the roe
of a kind of 'Sagmahi', that the French call it sturgeon." (3) Also, the
Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia says: " eggs, or roe of sturgeon preserved with
salt. Most true caviar is produced in
Russia and
Iran from the fish taken
in the Caspian
Sea and
Black
sea. In the
USA, the roe of salmon,
whitefish, lumpfish, paddlefish is sometimes sold under the name of caviar."
(4)
References to caviar
in literature and art date back almost as far as the sturgeon itself. Some claim
it was the Turkish who first coined the word "Khavyar" from which the English
term "caviar" originates. Others suggest the term "caviar" comes from a Persian
word. The Persians considered caviar to be a medicine for a multitude of
illnesses, and would eat it in stick form to give them energy and stamina. In
the 1240s the first written record of the word "Khavyar" was found in the
writings of Batu Khan (grandson of Ghengis Khan), while the word first appeared
in English print in 1591. Medieval
English society also held the caviar-producing sturgeon in the greatest respect.
(2)
Transforming the roe
of sturgeon into the marketable caviar " involves removing the eggs from a
female that is ready or nearly ready to spawn, gently rising the mature eggs and
adding a small amount of salt." (1)
The sturgeon has a
history of being over-fished, at times almost to the point of extinction, and in
the case of some species, beyond that point. The precarious position of the
sturgeon was recognized in 1997 by the Standing Committee of CITES (the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora). CITES was agreed upon at a March
3, 1973 meeting of
representatives of 80 countries, and became enforceable on July 1,
1975. CITES works by
subjecting international trade in specimens of selected species to certain
controls. These require that all import, export, re-export and introduction from
the sea of species covered by the Convention have to be authorized through a
licensing system.
In 1997, at the
10th meeting of the Standing Committee of CITES in Harare, Zimbabwe,
the Committee decided to regulate the international trade in sturgeon, and
included all 23 species of the Acipenseriformes in Appendix II, the list of
species "not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be
controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival." (The
sturgeon was not placed in Appendix I, a list of species threatened with
extinction, the trade of which is permitted only in exceptional cases). As of
April 1998, CITES has set limits on the amount of sturgeon and sturgeon products
that can be sold internationally, and all such products, including caviar, must
have a permit when being traded commercially.
In 2000, at their
11th meeting, the Committee recommended "the introduction of a
universal system for caviar labeling to help identify legal caviar in trade and
curb poaching and illegal caviar trafficking. And in June of 2001, at their
12th meeting in Paris, the Committee went so far as to threaten the
Caspian Sea range states (Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan) with
a complete ban on all caviar and sturgeon product exports unless "they
implemented a series of time-sensitive measures designed to stem the alarming
depletion of sturgeon stocks in the region.
Iran, was allowed to
continue exporting without CITES limitations, as the country strictly controls
the sturgeon catch in its waters.
In their
13th meeting in Geneva, on March 15,
2002, the Standing
Committee agreed to lift the temporary ban on caviar and sturgeon products
exports imposed on the range countries in June 2001. The Committee's Secretariat
approved the range countries' plan to regulate fishing, and set new
quotas.
For some environmental
groups, including "Caviar Emptor", an association of the Wildlife Conservation
Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Sea Web, the
Committee's decision to lift the export ban is a huge mistake. Caviar Emptor
argues that scientific evidence, such as the low number of mature adults being
caught, shows the beluga is almost extinct. (2)
In 2003 CITIES allowed littoral
states of the Caspian Sea to export nearly 147 tones of
caviar.
Iran had the right to export 78.8 and
Russia 30.3 tones. (5)
Traditionally, only two nations of the
world have been major caviar-exporters: the former Soviet Union and
Iran.
Iran re-launched its world-renowned
caviar trade a decade after the 1979 Islamic revolution. In the first year after
the Shah's departure, caviar was taboo and religious zealots prohibited its
consumption. The sturgeon appeared
to be anti-revolutionary and it was thought not to have any scales, which are
needed by the Islamic rules to make it "halal", i.e. acceptable under Islamic
law for consumption. The moratorium
on sturgeon fishing lasted until 1982, when the mullahs of
Iran discovered it did, in fact, have
some scales. Following this
"discovery", the Islamic theologians gave the blessing to
caviar.
On
February 18, 1992, the five countries signed a letter of understanding
to form an organization to exploit the Caspian marine resources.
Iran and Russia are the largest exporters of caviar and have formed
a joint cooperation to help protect and conserve the caviar. (6)
The total Caspian caviar production
for 1996 was expected to be 270 tones, with most destined for the international
market. In the CIS, there has been a shift from local to foreign markets, while
Iran has increased the volumes of its
caviar exports yearly and now exports about 95 per cent of its production.
Current domestic consumption within the CIS is estimated to be only about 100
tones yearly compared to an average of 1800 tones in the 1980s. The major import
markets for caviar from Iran and the CIS are the European Union
(EU), Japan, the
USA and
Switzerland. These markets imported annual
averages of 200 tones, 100 tones, 70 tones and 65 tones, respectively, between
1988 and 1994. During this period, the EU imported roughly half of all Caspian
caviar produced but exported approximately 24 per cent of this amount to other
countries.
Among EU countries,
Germany was the main importer (85 tones per
year), but it re-exported approximately 45 per cent of its imports to other
European countries and the USA.
France, where pressed caviar can retail
for up to US$600 per kilo, is the largest EU caviar consumer with 80 tones
imported yearly and 60 tones consumed on its domestic market. The
UK (20 tones per year) and
Belgium (20 tones per year) follow
Germany and
France in importance as importers of
Caspian caviar.
Japan accounted for about 16 per cent of
all Caspian caviar exports from 1991 to 1994, importing 45 to 57 tones per year.
It imported more caviar from the CIS than from
Iran during this period. The
USA receives 70 per cent of its caviar
imports from Russia. While the
USA has a commercial embargo on trade
with Iran, some 500 kilos of Iranian caviar
have entered the USA since 1991 via imports from
France,
Switzerland and more recently
Dubai. Dubai is emerging as a re-exporter of
Caspian caviar largely because of the efforts of one company, which handles
approximately 15 tones of caviar a year. UAE re-exports caviar to
Europe,
USA,
Australia and countries in the
Persian
Gulf, such
as Saudi
Arabia and
Kuwait.
Switzerland serves as a center for caviar
imports and exports within Europe and consistently consumes eight
tones of caviar on its domestic market annually.
Caviar is illegally exported from
Russia, or may be repacked and falsely
labeled in Eastern
Europe
before appearing on European retail markets. In
Germany, this type of caviar sells at a
fraction of the usual price. In one case, caviar that should retail at US$700
per kilo was sold for as little as US$150 per kilo. Illegal trade in caviar from
Iran is rare according to Iranian
government officials, but smuggling of caviar from
Iran into
Dubai appears to be a common route. Bulk
quantities of caviar are said to be transferred from Bander Anzeli in the
Caspian
Sea to
Bander Abbas in the Persian Gulf, where small boats then transport
it to Dubai. In CIS countries, Caspian caviar
produced from poached sturgeon is said to be smuggled aboard cargo ships
visiting French, Belgian, Danish or German harbors.
More often,
particularly in the case of CIS states, illicit traders simply use false
documents to mask the poached origin of their product or its unauthorized
preparation and packing. Falsification of documents relating to country of
origin may also be used as a ploy to gain a better price because Iranian caviar
fetches higher prices than that of CIS origin. While methods for identifying
species of origin have not been standardized, five of 23 caviar samples bought
in the USA in 1995 and 1996 were found to be mislabeled. (7)
The
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
declared beluga sturgeon to be "threatened with extinction" in April 2004, and
it will issue a final decision on trade restrictions for the delicacy in early
2005. This listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act could result in a ban
on beluga caviar imports to the United
States, the world's largest foreign market
for the delicacy.
A ban would be good news for the
beluga sturgeon, whose population has declined by 90 percent in the past 20
years. The sturgeon must be killed for caviar production, and global demand for
its eggs has prompted over-fishing and rampant illegal trade. The United States,
which in past years has imported about 60 percent of the world's beluga caviar,
is the major source of that demand, and a prohibition on imports would
significantly reduce pressure on the fish. The beluga can take 15 years to reach
reproductive age and can live to be 100, so it is vital that the long road to
recovery begins immediately. Scientists and fishermen who live in the Caspian
region agree.
The process to list beluga sturgeon
under the Endangered Species Act was initiated in December 2000 when Caviar
Emptor, compelled by overwhelming scientific evidence of the fish's perilous
status, submitted a petition to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Services.
Better
protection for beluga sturgeon can be welcome news for caviar lovers. In
addition to ensuring that beluga caviar will be around for future generations,
there is also an opportunity for consumers to try the growing selection of great
tasting and eco-friendly American caviars. Caviars made from farmed sturgeon and
paddlefish in the United
States
are winning over the discerning palates of chefs and connoisseurs alike.
(8)
When an animal species suddenly
appears in a new environment, the consequences can be grim. While some species
may quickly die off, others thrive in their new surroundings, often to the point
of posing a threat to the existing ecological order. Such is the case with
Mnemiopsis leidyi, a fist-sized jellyfish that has spent the past decade
menacing the waters of the Caspian Sea. The invasion of Mnemiopsis leidyi,
or Leidy's Comb Jelly, has caused the Caspian's fish stocks to plunge. The watery invader has a voracious
appetite, devouring much of the Caspian plankton that provides the sprats' main
sustenance. Furthermore, Mnemiopsis reproduces at an alarming rate. It can
double its size in a single day, reach maturity within two weeks, and then lay
as many as 1,200 eggs a day for as long as several months.
Mnemiopsis made its Eastern debut
two decades ago, in the Black Sea, after being transported from the
U.S. Atlantic coast in the hull of a ship carrying ballast water to maintain its
stability. When the ship emptied its ballast water, the jellyfish began its
feast on Black Sea plankton, causing a more than 80
percent decrease in fish stocks there.
The arrival of a second American
jellyfish, Beroe ovata, marked an important change in the late 1990s. The
newcomer began dining on Mnemiopsis, causing its almost immediate decline, and
allowing a resurge in the Black Sea's valuable anchovy stocks.
But Mnemiopsis once again began to
travel, and showed up in the Caspian Sea in 1999. This time the culprit is
believed to have been the ballast water of a boat shipping through the Volga-Don
canal linking the two seas. A decline in plankton quickly followed. In 2000
alone, scientists estimated that Caspian sprat stocks had decreased by 50
percent.
Could the
Beroe ovata once again prove the solution? Hossein Negarestan works for the
Iranian Fisheries Research Organization in Tehran. He told RFE/RL that studies have been conducted on
the safety of releasing a second jellyfish species into the Caspian. As long as
the process is handled carefully, he said, it should not create any new
ecological problems. All five Caspian states now have to endorse the
introduction of the Beroe ovata to the sea. It is an expensive and technically
difficult process. (9)
The UN Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) offered the Caspian countries of
Russia,
Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, and
Turkmenistan an ultimatum: Halt sturgeon fishing
or face a ban on exports of black caviar to rich and hungry Western
markets. The only Caspian country
exempted from the ban threat is Iran, which is considered by CITES to
practice effective conservation and policing of its fisheries. But
Iran is a small player in the caviar
business, with an annual harvest one-seventh the size of
Russia's. Still, experts say legal harvesting is
probably the least of the forces that have driven the Beluga sturgeon, which
resembles a chainsaw with fins, to the brink of extinction. The damming of the
Volga River spawning grounds 40 years ago,
pollution, poaching, and drilling connected with the Caspian oil boom have been
far more destructive. (10)
Overwhelming evidence would suggest
that the sturgeons' main enemy is not pollution but rather over-fishing. An
estimated 90% of sturgeons are killed before they are mature enough to reproduce
and the number of sturgeons returning to the
Volga River each year has, reportedly, declined
three-fold since 1991. Ironically, the rise in the Caspian's water level may
ultimately help the sturgeon as it may dilute some of the pollution, and bring
greater numbers of fish as a food source to their habitat. However, this
possibility is laced with controversy. Some biologists believe the benefits of a
higher sea level will be negated by a rise in the toxins washing from the
factories' and towns' accumulated wastes, including oil field spillage into the
Caspian
Sea.
a. A ban
on poaching must be enforced vigorously by all countries.
b. There has to be a serious agreement between the countries and
autonomous regions now surrounding the Caspian in regard to fair quotas that
will benefit everyone.
c. Open sea fishing should be banned to
prevent killing young, immature fish. Sturgeon caught in the rivers while
returning to spawn contain on average 14% body weight in caviar while those
caught in the sea contain about 3%.
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia need to formalize the initial quotas regarding
Russian Volga River caviar, which
Russia proposed to split among the three nations.
Such action would eliminate Azerbaijan's and Kazakhstan's needed to capture the sturgeon in the Caspian.
d. Industrial pollution flowing into the Caspian must be reduced to a
minimum.
e. Future oil drilling both onshore and offshore must
conform to the cleanest standards. (11)
1)
What is Caviar, CITES World,
official newsletter of the parties to the Convention on International trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Issue No. 8, Dec.2001, pp. 8.
2)
http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/504/Gordon.html
3)
Amid Farsi Dictionary (in Persian),
by Hassan Amid, Amir Kabir Publications,
Tehran 1373.
4)
Merriam-Webster Collegiate
Encyclopedia, USA, 2000, page:
304
5)
Novesti, Russian News Agency,
03/04/2005
6)
http://www.american.edu/TED/caspian.htm
7)
Sturgeons of the
Caspian Sea and the International Trade in
Caviar, http://www.traffic.org/publications/sturgeon_caviar.html
8)
http://www.caviaremptor.org/byebye.html
9)
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/environment/articles/pp070304.shtml
10)http://csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/durableRedirect.pl?/durable/2001/07/20/p6s1.htm
11)http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/23_folder/23_articles/23_caviar.html
About the author: Bahman Aghai Diba is a Senior
Consultant for the World Resources Company in the
Washington DC
... Payvand News - 5/21/05 ... --
