Illegal Caviar Production Puts the Danube Sturgeon Population in Danger

On several ocassions, endangered species have to pay the price of our outrageous eccentric demands. This time, the experts from the WWF said the caviar industry is putting the already threatened sturgeon of the Danube river in great danger. According to a recent TRAFFIC report issued by the organization, the most irresponsible countries are Romania and Bulgaria.

At this point in time, these are the last two locations in which wild sturgeon population is almost intact, but the impact upon the ecosystem is still noticeable, since biologists have revealed that 5 out of 6 native species which established their habitat in the Danube area face extinction, unless proper measures will be drawn and implemented to ensure their conservation. As a first step towards solving this problem, the authorities decided to ban the sturgeon fishing.

This measure didn't stop the companies which increase their profit margins by selling illegal caviar. The report indicates that Bulgaria exported 27.5 kg while Romania managed to provide 25 kg of forbidden treats, between 2000 and 2009. Both countries failed in reporting the illegal activities, a fact which raised the organization's concern.

Taking into consideration that both nations joined the EU in 2007, and therefore they have to comply with the established regulations, their negligence is criticized by WWF officials, who say that such a conduct implies an “unacceptable risk to these highly threatened species”

Romania and Bulgaria have to take this matter into their own hands, by closely monitoring and controlling their impact upon this specie. Further more, EU has the obligation to supervise the caviar trade, taking into consideration that most of its nations are supplied with caviar coming from these two countries.

“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,” affirmed Jutta Jahrl, Sturgeon expert at WWF.

The organization states that one of the measures which could regulate the caviar trade while protecting the endangered sturgeons involves a proper, responsible labelling of the legal existing products, which might stop consumers from buying products which have been manufactured at the expense of the sturgeon population.