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Science 10 September 2004:
Vol. 305. no. 5690, p. 1547
DOI: 10.1126/science.305.5690.1547c
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ScienceScope

Conservationists are welcoming a move by a United Nations agency that effectively suspends international trade in this year's caviar (sturgeon eggs) from the Caspian Sea region by delaying new export quotas.

Some scientists say that five Caspian states--which supply 90% of the world's caviar--have obscured overfishing by overstating the health of wild sturgeon stocks. Last March, a committee of the U.N.'s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) asked its secretariat to determine whether the exporters were complying with a global sturgeon conservation agreement (Science, 26 March, p. 1955). But the nations have yet to provide needed information, says James Armstrong, deputy secretary general of CITES. In particular, estimating levels of illegal fishing in order to set sustainable quotas has proved "difficult for them ... almost impossible," he says.

The 166 CITES members are now likely to bar Caspian caviar imports until the quotas are approved. Exporters, meanwhile, would like new numbers approved by November, so they can sell during the peak holiday season. Existing stocks will remain on the market.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)