Illegal caviar trade threatens endangered Danube sturgeons
Contact: Richard Thomas, +44 1223 279 068
Olga Apostolova, +359 2 950 50 41 November 14 (WWF) – The highly endangered sturgeons of the Danube river basin are at risk because of the persistent illegal trade in their caviar involving Bulgaria and Romania, according to a newly published TRAFFIC report compiled for WWF.
The two countries hold the only viable populations of wild sturgeons in the European Union (EU), but five of the six native sturgeon species in the Danube are critically endangered and sturgeon fishing there has been banned. According to the new report, a total of 14 seizures of illegal caviar originating from Bulgaria (27.5 kg in five seizures) and Romania (25 kg in nine seizures) were reported by EU Member States between 2000 and 2009. Neither Bulgaria nor Romania reported illegal caviar seizures themselves. “It is of concern that Bulgaria and Romania reported no seizures of caviar, while other EU Member States registered several seizures where those two countries were implicated,” said TRAFFIC’s Katalin Kecse-Nagy, author of the report. “The detected quantities are not very high, but we must bear in mind that the real volume of illegal trade is likely to be considerably higher and any illegal trade poses an unacceptable risk to these highly threatened species,” said Kecse-Nagy. Kecse-Nagy also points out that in 2007, both Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU, meaning any illegal trade was within the Union, and therefore harder to detect and prevent. In addition, due to their geographical position, the two countries are potential gateways for illicit caviar trade from the Caspian Sea, the most important sturgeon fishery in the world. […] “The EU has a major responsibility to regulate the caviar trade because EU member states are the largest consumer of caviar from Romania and the second largest consumer of caviar from Bulgaria,” said Jutta Jahrl, Sturgeon expert at WWF. “The EU must close every loophole in order to save sturgeons from extinction.” However, according to Jahrl, consumer awareness in Europe about the threat posed by illegal caviar trade is low, while even genuine traders know little about the requirements for labelling legal caviar. “It is crucial that traders and consumers do not buy unlabelled caviar – this simple act would strike a major blow against the illegal trade.”
The report, Trade in Sturgeon Caviar in Bulgaria and Romania [pdf], was funded by The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, DBU (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt) and WWF. […]
