The Caspian Sea: The Last Cradle of the Sturgeon
The Caspian Sea and the Black Sea have long been home to the world’s largest sturgeon populations. Until the late 1980s, sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea was strictly regulated by the Soviet and Iranian governments, which sought to balance production with conservation in response to declining stocks.
At the time, the Soviet Prodintorg, the organisation responsible for the production and export of Russian caviar, and its Iranian counterpart, Shilat, had implemented an ambitious artificial breeding programme. Millions of juvenile sturgeons produced through in vitro fertilisation were released into the Caspian Sea each year in an effort to replenish wild populations.
However, these efforts proved insufficient.
The decisive blow, one that no one had foreseen, came in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of fifteen independent states, including Russia.
Wild caviar was entering its final golden age. The newly independent countries bordering the Caspian Sea—Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan—embarked on intensive sturgeon exploitation, accelerating the gradual disappearance of the species.
Overfishing and Pollution: A Double Threat
Overfishing alone was not responsible for this ecological disaster. Pollution also played a significant role in the decline of the species.
As if that were not enough, an invasive American comb jelly is believed to have reached the Caspian Sea, threatening the kilka, a small fish from the herring family that forms a key part of the sturgeon's diet.
Protected since 1998 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the sturgeon remains critically endangered.
Although fishing quotas were introduced between 1998 and 2008, these conservation measures failed to restore sturgeon populations. Faced with the collapse of wild stocks, sturgeon fishing was ultimately banned in 2008. For the first time in the history of caviar, none of the traditional producing countries were permitted to export wild caviar.
It marked the end of wild caviar.
For more than fifteen years, the farmed caviar market has been subject to strict international protection. All sturgeon species are protected under CITES, which imposes rigorous regulations on the international trade of caviar.
Also known as the Washington Convention, this agreement requires each signatory state to enforce measures designed to protect endangered species, including the sturgeon.
In France, responsibility for enforcing these regulations lies with the Ministry for Ecological Transition. All sales of caviar to professional buyers must be declared, and even private purchases made abroad by travellers are subject to regulatory controls.