Environmental Summit OKs Severe Restrictions on Caviar

Exports and imports of Russian caviar--fish eggs coveted as one of the world’s finest delicacies--will be severely limited under a measure adopted Wednesday by the world’s environmental leaders that expands a global treaty on endangered species.

In a unanimous move, officials meeting in Zimbabwe to revise the pact added all varieties of sturgeon, the major source of caviar, to the list of animals and plants for which commercial sales are restricted.

Every country that exports or imports caviar must take steps to regulate trade beginning April 1, 1998. The most severe limits are expected to be on Caspian Sea beluga sturgeon--the source of the world’s most prized caviar, which sells for about $50 per ounce in California gourmet stores.

Under the expanded treaty, officials from Russia--who endorsed the restrictions in order to rescue one of their most valuable resources--and other nations bordering the Caspian Sea will be responsible for setting quotas on their exports.

But Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran and Azerbaijan, which ring the Caspian, have proved largely unable to control poaching and smuggling, so enforcement for the most part will be up to the United States and other importing countries.

The United States, which joined with Germany to propose the regulation at the 10th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, is the world’s largest importer of caviar. U.S. consumers feasted on 60 tons of the salty roe a year from 1992 through 1995.

U.S. Customs agents will examine shipments for illegal imports to ensure that only caviar with the proper permits from the exporting country is allowed into U.S. ports. Agents eventually are expected to use new DNA technology to identify sources of imported eggs.

Caspian Sea sturgeon are at risk of extinction from overfishing because of a thriving caviar black market.

Adult sturgeons, which normally live long lives and spawn irregularly, are killed when eggs are collected, causing steep declines in the fish population that were first noted in the mid-1970s.

Sue Lieberman, chief of operations at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said caviar will still be available in the United States, but products from the Caspian Sea--which provides 90% of the world’s caviar--will be highly restricted.

The price of beluga caviar is expected to skyrocket as the supply, which has already reached historic lows, is reduced.

Caviar harvested from U.S. fish will be unaffected, since the U.S. government will certify that the trade will not cause the extinction of domestic sturgeon.

Officials from Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan announced Wednesday that they are committed to taking steps to stem poaching of their prized sturgeon. About 80% of Caspian caviar is believed to be poached and traded illegally.

In a separate vote at the CITES summit, the world environmental leaders denied protection for another luxury product--mahogany from Mexico and Central and South America. The stock of tropical mahogany is reportedly declining because of illegal logging.