Researchers found international market flouted CITES and EU wildlife regulations, other laws
Photo: iStock A new study has revealed that sturgeon products being sold in the international market were from illegal trade and flouting wildlife protection norms.
Sturgeon, a fish native to lower Danube countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine that produces caviar, has been fished illegally, the researchers found.
Danube is the last river body with functional populations of beluga (Huso huso), Russian (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), stellate (Acipenser stellatus) and sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) sturgeons, according to the authors of the study.
Intensive exploitation of the fish species along with habitat change, however, has pushed them to the brink of extinction. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1998 listed the species as endangered and put restrictions on fishing of sturgeons from the Danube and Black Sea. Since then, the legal, internationally traceable caviar and meat can only be sourced from farmed sturgeons.
In 2000, CITES even imposed an international labelling system for all caviar products to curb illegal trade.
But the new formal study from DNA and isotope patterns showed that 21 per cent of the samples were sourced from wild caught sturgeons and were sold in all the countries studied.
The research also found that 29 per cent of the samples violated CITES and Wildlife Trade Regulations of the European Union, and other corresponding national laws.
The researchers observed caviar listed under the wrong species of sturgeon or wrong country of origin. The remaining 32 per cent of samples were classified as customer deception, where the samples were being sold as wild products but originated from aquaculture.
The conclusion was made after a total of 149 samples of caviar and fish meat were scientifically tested through genetic-isotope analyses. The meat and caviar were purchased from online and local shops along with restaurants, bars, aquacultures, fishermen and local markets from the four countries.
One sample sourced from Ukraine labelled as starlet caviar was found to be a synthetic product having the DNA of Acipenser schrenckii and Huso dauricus, a hybrid common in Chinese aquaculture.
In other three samples from Romania of sturgeon soup were actually Nile perch (Lates niloticus) and European catfish (Silurus glanis).
The research noted that there was always anecdotal evidence of poaching and illegal trade in many sturgeon countries, but the systematic market study was missing.
The results, they added, were alarming as the malpractice puts the sturgeon population in danger.
Moreover, the demand for wild products encourages poaching, showing that consumers have not developed the mindset to accept aquaculture as a substitute, the authors noted in the report.
Caviar sold violating the international laws indicate that the control measures to stop illegal trade are ineffective and undermine the conservation effort, they added.
The research pointed out, “The presence of natural hybrids in a population can be an alarming feature of declining populations (such as extinction by hybridisation). Natural hybridisation in sturgeons is forced by the lack of mating partners, by the reduction of spawning grounds (such as through dams) and by global warming (like through reduced spawning periods).”
Finding many products from wild-caught populations can be considered an indicator of high fishing pressure because of lack of alternative income opportunities for fishermen, according to the researchers.
Insufficient control and ineffectiveness in enforcing laws may be the result of lack of awareness, resources and even corruption, they said,
The finding also busts the notion that poaching and wildlife trade are problems of developing countries only. The high ratio of poached sturgeon products originating from the EU and its accession candidate states showed the issue prominent in developed countries as well, the authors noted.
“Caviar and sturgeon trade urgently needs improvement to ensure that sturgeon populations will have a future,” the researchers said.
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