Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Soviet Split Puts Pressure On U.S. Fish American Sturgeon Highly Coveted As Other Sources Of Caviar Depleted

Associated Press

The breakup of the Soviet Union is helping wipe out some of the world’s oldest fish, including some in North America. They are the sturgeons, a family of fish that was already old when dinosaurs first walked the earth.

Experts worry that within a couple of decades half the species of these sometimes-giant fish will be extinct. In the United States, for example, the Alabama sturgeon recently was declared extinct. The Kootenai River sturgeon in Idaho is considered an endangered species because of impacts on stream flow from Libby Dam.

But the worldwide concern stems from the global appetite for caviar.

There are 27 species of sturgeons found around the world, but only in the northern hemisphere. No one knows why they have no cousins south of the equator. The world’s finest caviar, beluga caviar, comes from the largest of the sturgeon. The beluga sturgeon is the largest fish in fresh water. A native of Russia’s Volga River and Caspian Sea, it grows to nearly 25 feet and can weigh up to 3.5 tons.

Dams and industrial pollution in the Volga basin, once home to 90 percent of the world’s sturgeon, have drastically reduced the number of fish.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union, fishermen from Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Dagestan and Kalmykia all are in an unregulated attempt to haul the remaining sturgeon from the Caspian Sea. These fish had been protected by Soviet law.

Another prime habitat for Soviet sturgeon, the Aral Sea, has shrunk to less that one-third of its size because water is being diverted from feeder rivers for irrigation.

The loss of the Soviet Union’s sturgeon, and caviar, has made North American sturgeon much more valuable to legal fishermen and to poachers.

Populations of those fish, already hurt by dams which keep them from swimming upstream to spawning gounds and in some cases overfishing for the past century, can’t take it.

Three of the eight species of North American sturgeon are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The service is considering three other species for listing.

Caviar, which is sturgeon eggs strained through a mesh for cleaning and then soaked in salt brine, isn’t sold locally and frequently is shipped out of the country.

“The best prices are coming from the Orient and Eastern Europe, particularly Germany, FWS officials say.

Frequently, poachers will blend American caviar with imported caviar and sell it in the United States as pure Russian caviar.

The pallid sturgeon, found in the Missouri and Mississippi River basins, and the shortnose sturgeon, found along the East Coast, are officially listed as endangered. The Gulf sturgeon, found along the Gulf Coast, is threatened.

Scientists are closely watching the white sturgeon, the largest of the North American sturgeon. Found in the Pacific Northwest, it can grow to more than 20 feet and 1,300 pounds.

The lake sturgeon, found in the Great Lakes basin, seems to be holding its own. Other species are the Atlantic sturgeon, found along the East Coast, the shovelnose sturgeon, found in the Mississippi and Missouri river basins, and the green sturgeon, found along the Pacific coast.