America to introduce ban on caviar

[emad]

Sturgeon stocks in the Caspian Sea have fallen by 90 per cent in 30 years, prompting drastic action in the US
By David Usborne in New York
Published: 10 September 2005

The United States is expected to impose a blanket ban very shortly on the import of beluga caviar from the Caspian Sea region, in a move designed to prevent the delicacy from vanishing forever from melba toasts and fine bone china dishes because of drastic environmental damage and over-harvesting.

Beluga has long been considered the tastiest and most aristocratic of caviars, especially in the United States, which accounts for almost 80 per cent of consumption. But, last year, the US officially placed the fish that produces the rare roe, the beluga sturgeon, on its endangered species list.

More importantly, American wildlife officials also served notice earlier this year to several beluga-caviar nations that a ban would be instituted unless they each drew up management plans to protect the beluga sturgeon from extinction. The beluga can grow up to 4,000lbs and live a hundred years. The deadline for those plans to be completed and submitted for consideration by the United States had been set for 6 September and, so far, none have been received.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/article311557.ece

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/article311557.ece
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia and Turkmenistan.

[havocmom]

1. Amusing. Will the people who can afford the stuff bother with obeying

laws or will they yuck it up over Cuban cigars?

[emad]

2. Let them eat cake!

?

[ima_sinnic]

3. my thought exactly

a showboat "law" with absolutely no meaning or relevance to their acquisitive, ostentatious, repulsive, shallow lives.

[whistle]

4. That should really help boost consumption and production....

...of domestic caviar.

<snip>
Caviar Emptor

Questions and Answers

1/21/04

1. What is caviar?

Caviar is the eggs (or roe) taken from female sturgeon, a "fossil" fish found in coastal waters, rivers and lakes of the Northern Hemisphere.

2. Where does caviar come from?

Most of the world's caviar comes from sturgeon of the Caspian Sea, an inland sea located between Russia and Iran. Three species of sturgeon produce most of the world's caviar: beluga sturgeon produces beluga caviar; Russian sturgeon produces osetra caviar and stellate sturgeon produces sevruga caviar.

3. What is the goal of the Caviar Emptor program?

The goal of the program is to promote recovery of sturgeon, fish that supply the world with caviar, and increase consumer awareness of the problems facing sturgeon and other fish.




<more>
<link> http://www.caviaremptor.org/qanda.html

[havocmom]

5. I believe they have banned the catching of sturgeon in rivers in my area

Just a few years ago, there were reps of a Japanese canning firm floating around to collect roe when a fisherman pulled in a sturgeon. No more.