Cut out Caviar to save Sturgeon

Most of the world's Sturgeon spawn in the rivers that flow into the Caspian Sea. Their unfertilized eggs, known as caviar, are sold by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia. Overfishing, poaching, pollution and poor management have cut sturgeon stocks in the Caspian. So, Russia's first Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov requests rich people to cut off caviar from menu to let Sturgeon stocks recover.

Ivanov said, black and red caviar, and crab meat was not an essential part of an everyday diet and he could do without his caviar "ration" for five to seven years. "If we banned catches for a period of time then I would certainly survive. We would repair our national wealth in this time after we so rapaciously annihilated it," Ivanov said. Link

Experts say beluga is on the verge of extinction after fish numbers fell by 90 percent over the past 20 years. High prices for caviar have made the sturgeon a target for criminal groups who control poaching gangs and illegal caviar sales in Russia and abroad.