New York Times September 30, 2005 In Conservation Effort, U.S. Bans Caspian Beluga Caviar By FELICITY BARRINGER and FLORENCE FABRICANT WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - The United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that it would ban the import of caviar from beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea, after caviar-exporting countries in the region failed to provide details of their plans to conserve the fish. The species is internationally recognized as threatened with extinction. Beluga caviar is still available from countries in the Black Sea region, but information from three nations there is under review. The United States consumes 60 percent of the world exports of beluga caviar, a $200-an-ounce delicacy, the Rolls-Royce of caviars. Demand by the luxury food market for the black, cured roe has led to decades of overfishing, and stocks have dwindled sharply, particularly in the Caspian Sea, where the population of beluga sturgeon has declined by 90 percent in the past 20 years. An article in the September issue of Science magazine cited Mohammad Pourkazemi, director of the International Sturgeon Research Institute in Iran, as saying that the most recent survey of the Caspian sturgeon population showed that stocks declined as much as 30 percent in the last year alone. But while beluga has long had unrivaled international cachet and commanded unrivaled prices, it accounted for less than 5 percent of American caviar consumption last year, much less than osetra and sevruga caviars. Connoisseurs have long felt that beluga's prestige had more to do with price than quality. Some types of osetra, including the golden variety from Iran, are more highly esteemed. Because price increases of dwindling stocks of Caspian Sea beluga caviar have sent sales plunging in the United States for several years, caviar dealers and chefs said they did not expect their businesses to be affected by Thursday's ruling, which most said they had anticipated. Armen Petrossian, a leading importer, was unhappy about the agency's decision. "It will not help anything," Mr. Petrossian said. "It will only enhance the black market." The ban, which is to take effect on Friday, is the first unilateral limit on caviar imports by the United States. It also affects travelers, each of whom had been allowed to bring in as much as 250 grams of Caspian beluga. The government had imposed temporary bans required under the international treaty that governs trade in threatened and endangered species. Australia already bans imports of Caspian beluga caviar. The future of Caspian beluga sturgeon, a bony fish whose armor-plated body can grow as long as 15 feet and weigh more than a ton, has been the subject of growing concern since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the ensuing competition among the fishermen of Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan for primacy in sturgeon harvesting in the Caspian Sea. Iran, which has a detailed and strictly enforced program for conserving the fish, also failed to provide documentation of its plan, said Kenneth Stansell, an assistant director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Mr. Stansell said in a telephone news conference on Thursday that despite extensive contacts, the Caspian nations had failed to provide data on conservation efforts. Last October, the wildlife service listed the beluga sturgeon as a threatened species and, in March, required nations that harvested the fish to provide a description of conservation programs by Sept. 6 or face an import ban. In a news release that accompanied her recent study in the journal Fish and Fisheries, Ellen Pikitch, the executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science at the University of Miami, said: "Our findings are very bleak. The majority of the world's major sturgeon fisheries are now catching 85 percent fewer fish than they did at their peak." Three nations that provide beluga from the Black Sea - Bulgaria, Georgia, and Serbia and Montenegro - have provided information that the wildlife service is reviewing, Mr. Stansell said. In the past year, the Black Sea fisheries provided almost 50 percent of the beluga caviar available in international markets, United Nations figures show. The ban announced by the wildlife service came slightly less than five years after an initial petition for the action by the environmental group Caviar Emptor. Asked about the duration of the ban, Mr. Stansell said, "We affirm our desire to work cooperatively" with the Caspian nations, but he added that any relaxation of the ban would depend on whether the agency received information, and on analysis of that information to see whether it met the conditions of the rules set in March. Like many importers, Rod Mitchell, owner of Browne Trading in Portland, Me., had made an order - 500 pounds of beluga from Kazakhstan - that will now not be shipped. He said he had little in stock and was offering alternatives, including an increasing array of farm-raised caviar from Europe. Other dealers, including David Magnotta, of Caviar Russe in Manhattan, and Hossein Aimani, of Paramount Caviar, said they thought they had enough beluga in stock for the holiday season. "But it will depend on the demand," Mr. Magnotta said. _______________________________________________________________ http://www.caspnirh.astranet.ru/ - informative site of ???????? in Astrakhan