18 September 2003 08:29
Caviar supplies under threat
SUPPLIES of caviar could be threatened because an international conservation body monitoring numbers of the beluga
sturgeon could have got its sums wrong.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) believed numbers of beluga sturgeon, from which
top grade caviar is obtained, rose to 11.6 million last year, a rise of almost two million on 2001. Its findings allowed
Russia, Iran and other countries bordering the Caspian Sea to harvest the fish and export up to 155 tons of the fish and
nine tons of caviar.
But the raw data, published recently by Cites, suggests the sturgeon population might have crashed by 40 per cent to
fewer than half a million fish. The raw data is based on a small survey trawl of 56 beluga sturgeon and makes an
assumption that up to 24 fish escape the path of the trawl for every one that is caught.
Environmentalists believe only one fish evades the trawl for every fish caught. If correct, the true population could
be fewer than 500,000 and continued fishing could be disastrous.
Backing their case is the finding that the number of beluga caught by Cites in each trawl fell by 39 per cent last
year and the number of adult beluga appearing in rivers for spawning also fell.
[UKIR [UK & Ireland Intelligence Wire]] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
