CaViAr DrEaMs and NoN ExTiNcT WiSheS

Caviar has always been expensive. Soon, you may not be able to have it at any price.....

In an effort to save the precious seafood from total extinction, the five nations that border the Caspian Sea, where 90 percent of all caviar producing sturgeon live, have agreed in principle to ban all sturgeon fishing for FiVe years.

The action came during a meeting of Caspian Sea leaders in Baku, Azerbaijan. They were spurred to action by a report that Iran's caviar reserves would be totally exhausted in 12 years if sturgeon fishing were to continue at its current level.

Russia and Iran have restricted sturgeon fishing, but because of the value of the product, fishing has remained relatively uncontrolled from other Caspian ports. Also, gas and oil exploration in the Caspian Sea is threatening sturgeon stocks. 

Not even two years later we have a fresh supply of wild caviar from the Caspian Sea on  the  holiday blini this fall and winter.. The international convention that regulates trade in endangered species issued quotas for the catch.

The decision has prompted outcries from environmentalists, predictions of lofty prices and soon, presumably, cheering from aficionados of wild Caspian caviar. (Without quotas, the producing countries cannot legally export any caviar at all.)

To establish the quotas, the five producing countries on the Caspian Sea — Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan — must agree on what they consider to be sustainable amounts, which they did last spring in Tehran. The countries bordering the Black Sea, Danube basin and Amur River did not set quotas, so there will be no caviar from those sources.

The total Caspian catch that can be exported from the producing countries (there is no limit on domestic consumption) amounts to about 81 tons: 17 tons of sevruga, 61 of osetra and 3 of beluga. In 2008 the total was 95 tons, down from 200 in 2001, and much less than the 450 tons shipped in 1990. The new quota covers fishing from March 1, 2010, to Feb. 28, 2011.. so lets do our part in saving these creamy salty spheres of the sea.. enjoy it why we can and opt for some farm raised a few months outta the year! and if your thinking if i dont buy it somebody else will, just remember that when its extinct!!