GLOBAL STURGEON CAVIAR TRADE BAN EXTENDED INDEFINITELY
A worldwide embargo on trade in wild sturgeon caviar has been extended to conserve dwindling sturgeon stocks, banning the export of caviar from the Caspian Sea for all countries except Iran. Under the decision, by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) only one Caspian nation--Iran--will be allowed to export a limited amount of Persian sturgeon caviar. The ban follows years of declining sturgeon harvests. CITES, a convention on wildlife trade that 169 countries agree to, does not cover domestic trade, which is "robust," according to a New York Times story on the ban. The Times quotes the Pew Institute's sturgeon scientist Phaedra Doukakis, who co-authored (along with lead author and Pew Institute Director Ellen Pikitch and others) a global survey of the sturgeon declines that was published last year in the journal Fish & Fisheries. "CITES' action isn't going to save this fish or clean up this fishery in and of itself," said Doukakis. "There are all of these other outlets for trade that will be used. But it still is positive. It is still a move in the right direction."
