Greate Lakes’ lake sturgeon revives its stock
April 28, 2010
Good news are scarce. Especially when it comes to ’sturgeon’. One very good reason to spread this one. The Greate Lakes’ lake sturgeon is coming back to live. It’s stock is getting bigger and bigger. That’s not due to a natural phenomenon but thanks to the strict spearing limits, poaching laws, restocking efforts and the well-protected spring spawning.
Read more!
How much banning is needed?
April 5, 2010
Last week I posted something about a rumour, that the Russians want to convince their Caspian Sea border states members to pass a 10-year fishing ban in order to restore the tiny sturgeon wild-stocks in the region.
Now, after I cheered to that for a while as a gone-mad-greenpeace-disciple, I had to make one step back and reflect about what actually hangs in the air. Let’s be clear, even if the direction might be right, a 10-year fishing ban doesn’t bring these critically endangered sturgeons to their well-deserved bright future. Because of their slow maturation – wild sturgeons lay their eggs at the age of aprox. 15 years old (depending the species) – some scientist suggest a ban of at least four decades to be effective! And there is just no way, that any fishing and/or customs authority (might it be legal or corrupt) of the bordering states is up and ready to sacrifice some additional pocket-$$$.
As far as I know, only the Japanese know how to follow plans that take 50 long years to play out. And I am talking about ‘A’ and not ‘B’ plans. I just dont see how the Russians (not talking about the rest) could manage such an undertaking.
And even if they would declare such ban, let me put it in the words of sturgeon expert and conservationist Phaedra Doukakis: “The challenge for Russia is the vastness of the Volga River Delta. It won’t just take this moratorium, it will also take a pretty good crackdown on illegal fishing.”
And about that ‘10-year ban rumour’ I mentioned, the latest that I picked up in the internet void was, that they reduced it to 5 years. Don’t act surprised…
Read original article.
New era in fighting wildlife crime!
March 26, 2010
A glory day for all conservationists and environmentalists around the world!
Finally, wild life protection through international law enforcement agencies gets a higher priority!
Yesterday was the closing date for the 15th Conference of the Parties being held in Doha, Qatar and organised by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). There are flashing lights pointing into a new, better organised and more strict law enforcement era for bringing wildlife criminal to justice. Behind bars, where they belong. Aiming to introduce this era is the recently-formed International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC). Made up of the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank and the World Customs Organization. Wow!
Let me quote Willem Wijnstekers, Secretary-General of the CITES: “We are determined that there will be a level playing field and that a new era of wildlife law enforcement is introduced. An era where those who rob countries and communities of their natural resources will face a determined and formidable opposition. It is high time that more wildlife criminals end up behind bars, where they belong.”
Read full CITES press release: Bringing an organized response to organized wildlife crime
In addition to these measures, there seems to exist the rumor that the Russians want to convince all the Caspian Sea states to pass a respective general fishing ban in the entire Caspian Sea for the duration of 10yrs. Yes, that’s right. Not only for sturgeon species, but for all fish stocks. This would be the only realistic time frame so that the existing sturgeon wild populations could recover their stocks. Lets all cross fingers for that!
Sturgeons become the most critically endangered species!
March 25, 2010
This is BIG NEWS! The International Union for Conservation of Nature is putting sturgeon species on their Red List.
Following an extract from a recent press release from the IUCN:
Eighty five percent of sturgeon, one of the oldest families of fishes in existence, valued around the world for their precious roe, are at risk of extinction, making them the most threatened group of animals on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. The latest update of the Red List assessed the status of 18 species of sturgeon from all over Europe and Asia and found that all were threatened.
To read full article
Russian authorities seize illegal caviar
February 4, 2010
“Russian police have seized 1.4 tons of sturgeon and 9 kg of caviar in two separate incidents, police said on Friday.
“The fish were discovered on Thursday in a Mitsubishi Canter truck” a police spokesman in the Far East city of Khabarovsk said.
Poachers target the fish, protected under Russian law, for its sought-after black caviar.
In another incident on Thursday, Russian South Ural police seized 9 kilograms of caviar in the restaurant carriage of a Moscow-Tashkent train.
Police said that Uzbek nationals were attempting to export the caviar from Russia illegally.
In Russia, one kilogram of the black sturgeon caviar costs around 35,000 rubles ($1,152).”
Original article: RIA Novosti
The confusion behind ‘Oscietra’
January 13, 2010
This post is more of an invitation to comment, than pure informational.
It is about the confusion behind the expression oscietra and its labelling, recently mentioned in a New York Times article. Historically ‘oscietra’ refers to one of the 3 caviar categories (the others are beluga and sevruga) and is made from the roe of the Russian and Persian sturgeon (altough some caviar players include the roe of the Amur and Fringe Barble sturgeon to the oscietra family). The Russian sturgeon’s latin name is Acipenser gueldenstaedtii and the Persian sturgeon’s name is Acipenser persicus. But in the last few years, many others are using the term ‘oscietra’ for caviar made out of the Siberian sturgeon (latin: Acipenser baerii), which could be conceived as a very close cousin to both sturgeon species mentioned above.
The word ‘oscietra’ (or oscietre, osscietre, osetra, asetra, osiotr, etc.) is Russian and its literal meaning is ’sturgeon’. And therefore, as Mark Zaslavsky, the president of Marky’s, puts it: “All sturgeon is osetra. It’s a commercial term.”
But nevertheless there are many producers and distributors alike who dont label caviar made of the Siberian sturgeon under the ‘oscietra’-flag. And some of them even promote their own brand creation for caviar made out of the Siberian sturgeon.
- Petrossian
- Sturia (formerly know as ‘Caviar d’ Aquitaine’)
- Kings Fine Food
- Galilee Caviar
- Holsten (using the brand ‘Baerioska’ made out of the siberian sturgeon)
- Prunier (uses its own brand names for the siberian sturgeon roe, such as Tradition, Héritage, Saint James & Paris)
- Marky’s
- Kaspia
- Rossinicaviar (offering besides ‘Baerii caviar’ and the classic oscietra the so called GUBA, a hybrid between the russian and the siberian sturgeon)
Now, as if the confusion wouldnt be perfect by now, I would like to mention the vast habitat of the Siberian sturgeon. Some of their population goes into the Volga region and even into the Caspian Sea. According to a study it is a fact to state, that the Siberian sturgeon (A. baerii) even transmigrates into new regions where a genetic contamination occurs with the classic oscietra sturgeon, the Russian sturgeon, during their reproduction. It is already known that DNA analysis during caviar trading controls makes it virtually impossible today to differentiate between the two sturgeon species.
A recent comment I got from a Swiss authority (CITES) says that such trade names as ‘oscietra’ give an inaccurate view of the species and thus are not part of the necessary regulated information. What is important is the correct labeling, mentioning the latin name of the respective sturgeon species. Furthermore he adds to say, that to distinguish both species through DNA analisis is mostly very hard and in some cases even imposible.
So, on one hand we have a very classic and old expression – a commercial term – to categorize caviar and on the other hand we see new market behavior and the fact of genetic contamination and almost identical DNA codes.
Therefor I would like to raise the following question:
Is there really a basic legitimacy to differentiate the Russian from the Siberian Sturgeon on a commercial dimension?
Please feel free to comment.
Some links to follow-up:
- “Evidence of mitochondrial DNA clones of Siberian sturgeon, Acipenser baerii, within Russian sturgeon, Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, caught in the River Volga”:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120831092/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
- “Testing taxonomic boundaries and the limit of DNA barcoding in the Siberian sturgeon, Acipenser baerii”:
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/19401730903168182
- The New York Times: “The Challenge of Knowing What’s Really in the Osetra Tin”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/dining/16caviar.html?emc=eta1
Chile goes caviar?
December 2, 2009
The event is a milestone in perseverance and a great merit for aquaculture researcher from the University of Los Lagos, Dr. Juan Carlos Uribe who has been working for years in the project with resources from Chile’s Development and Promotion Office.
The research and tests begun in 1996 with the purpose of developing an industrial technology to enable the industrial production of sturgeon and the much coveted caviar which is extracted from the fish’s eggs.
“After fifteen years of investigation we had these specimens here and finally they managed to reproduce”, said Uribe from Parral where the experimental farms are located.
“That was the missing step. The project is most interesting for Chile given the price of caviar, and of sturgeon fillets, and even more interesting since it’s a species in extinction process”.
Sturgeon is a considered a living fossil: they have survived since the time of the Dinosaurs having conserved their prehistoric aspect. Fossilized remains have been found in rocks dating back 54 and 40 million years, according to Dr. Uribe
Chilean researchers believe that sturgeon could repeat the “king salmon” experience for Chile. “Now we can move into the commercial stage” said Uribe (…)
Read full story here
ZwyerCaviar: excellence in brand packaging design
October 29, 2009
Developing the Black Pearl was a very challenging project and it took us over a year to accomplish. Therefore it is logical that we feel very proud in receiving such a great response from the press, customers, partners and jurys. Even more so when its from the Pentawards, one of the worlds most prestigious packaging awards.
Click here to see the official honoring document.
Rest assured: After winning 2 international awards, count us in for some more competition!
Look-alike sturgeon may get protection
October 15, 2009
(Excerpt) “Good news for shovelnose sturgeon may be bad news for this region’s commercial fishermen, who sell them to make caviar.The shovelnose are not endangered, but their relatives, the pallid sturgeon, are. Because a young pallid can be mistaken for a shovelnose, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed declaring the shovelnose a threatened species in areas where the two types overlap, giving it regulatory authority.”
Click here to read full article!
Sturgeon poaching in the Columbia River
September 17, 2009
KPLU’s Austin Jenkins recently went on patrol with Washington Fish and Wildlife Police looking for illegal sturgeon catches.
Read the article on KPLU
Recent Comments