2012. Review of Significant Trade - Cites

Huso huso
the Secretariat; therefore, in line with Resolution Conf. 12.7 (Rev. CoP14), zero export quotas
were published for all wild-sourced sturgeon products.
Resolution Conf. 12.7 (Rev. CoP14) also requires that range States license legal exporters of
specimens of sturgeon and paddlefish species and maintain a register of such persons or
companies and provide a copy of this register to the Secretariat; Parties supply to UNEP-
WCMC directly or to the Secretariat copies of all export permits and re-export certificates
issued to authorize trade in caviar, no longer than one month after they have been issued,
for inclusion in the UNEP-WCMC Caviar Database; and Parties implement the universal
labelling system for caviar outlined in Annexes 1 and 2 and importing Parties not accept
shipments of caviar unless they comply with these provisions.
Caviar made from the unfertilised eggs of H. huso is the most expensive of all caviars
(Vogue, 2002, cited in Carocci, 2004). Internet searches conducted in October 2011 for H. huso
caviar available in 1 kg quantities, found examples of prices ranging from AED 9000/kg
(c. EUR 1800) for “Farmed Beluga Caviar”, through GBP 3200/kg (c. EUR 3700) for “Farmed
Sustainable” caviar to “Special Reserve” at EUR 12 200/kg.
Poaching and illegal trade of sturgeon species were considered to have increased following
the dissolution of the Soviet Union (Khodorevskaya et al., 1997; TRAFFIC
International et al. 2000; Carocci, 2004; Pikitch et al., 2005; Pourkazemi, 2006). At an
international workshop to combat illegal trade in caviar held in 2006, illegal trade in
sturgeon products was noted to be a “serious and growing concern” (Knapp et al., 2006).
While there are a large number of measures in every Caspian country aimed at reducing
illegal harvest, distribution and consumption, harvest through illegal uncontrolled and
unreported fishing in the Caspian Sea is still considered to “substantially exceeded” legal
harvest (Sharov, 2011). At the 25 th meeting of the Animals Committee, the Secretariat
reported having received relatively little intelligence relating to the illegal trade in caviar (in
comparison with previous years), which may be due to the increasing difficulty for poachers
in finding significant numbers of gravid females, as well as the demand for caviar
increasingly being supplied by extensive aquaculture operations, which are spreading
throughout many parts of the world (AC25 Doc. 16.1).
At the 25 th meeting of the Animals Committee (July 2011, Geneva), it was noted that
progress had not been made in improving the status of sturgeons, with ongoing decline in
Caspian Sea stocks of particular concern, and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)
fishing and illegal domestic and international trade in sturgeon products being serious
problems (AC25 Summary Record).
There have been three Regional CITES Meetings of the Black Sea and Azov Sea, during
which a “Regional Strategy for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Sturgeon
Populations of the N-W Black Sea and Lower Danube River in accordance with CITES” has
been agreed, and an Agreement between Fisheries and CITES Management Authorities from
Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the Ukraine, concerning the implementation
of the Regional Strategy, has been signed (Suciu, 2008).
The Commission on Aquatic Bio-resources of the Caspian Sea was formed in 1992 (with the
membership of the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and in 2001,
Iran) to monitor and manage shared stocks of sturgeon and other Caspian Sea species
(CABCS, 2003; Pourkazemi, 2006). The Commission was reported to have approved the
methods for total allowable catch (TAC) allocation of aquatic resources, including sturgeon
species, to Caspian range States, based on their contribution to the reproduction and
conservation of bioresources (Khodorevskaya et al., 2006, cited in Sharov, 2011). In February
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