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On 30 September the US suspended imports of beluga caviar from Caspian Sea nations after they failed to present information on their conservation efforts by the 6 September deadline. Survey results cited in Science magazine in September 2004 indicate that the stocks of the Caspian beluga sturgeon have declined as much as 30 percent in the last year alone, and experts suggest that stocks have decreased by as much as 90 percent in the last 20 years. These statistics prompted the US, which imports 60 percent of the world’s beluga caviar, to list the species as threatened in October 2004 and in March 2005 it demanded that Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia, the Caspian states which export the caviar, present evidence of their conservation activities. Caviar Emptor, an environmental coalition including SeaWeb, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the University of Miami’s Pew Institute for Ocean Science, welcomed the ban. “Time is running out for the beluga and there’s no excuse for the freefor- all in the Caspian,” Shannon Crownover, program manager for Caviar Emptor, said. “We hope the ban sends a clear message to governments in the region from their biggest market and offers some temporary relief for the sturgeon.” Annual quotas for the beluga sturgeon in the Black Sea and Caspian regions have been a source of debate at the meetings of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 10 September 2004, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/04-09-10/inbrief.htm#4). One ounce of beluga sturgeon caviar can sell for approximately US$250.
“U.S. Authorities Forbid Import of Russian Beluga Caviar,” MOSNEWS, 30 September 2005; “In Conservation Effort, U.S. Bans Caspian Beluga Caviar,” NEW YORK TIMES, 30 September 2005; ” US to ban Caspian beluga caviar imports–group,” REUTERS, 30 September 2005; ” U.S. BANS IMPORTS OF CASPIAN SEA BELUGA CAVIAR,” CAVIAR EMPTOR, 29 September 2005.
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