Once it was Russia that was the main supplier of black caviar on the world market. Beluga, sturgeon, sterlet, stellate sturgeon and their caviar were considered traditional for Russian cuisine. But already in the days of the Soviet Union, black caviar became a rarity and a delicacy, and after its collapse, with the beginning of its barbaric poaching, it became practically inaccessible. The sturgeon population in the Caspian Sea has become endangered and the production of black caviar has been banned.
Ban as an attempt to restore the sturgeon population
Until the 80s of the last century, the USSR held a leading position in catching sturgeon fish, the main population of which is located in the Caspian Sea. Every year, up to 28,000 tons of sturgeon were caught there, supplying the world market with 2,500 tons of delicious black caviar, but in 1981 the harvest was already 16850 tons, and in 1996 this amount decreased to 1,094 tons.
The natural recovery of the population, which began to decline much earlier - already from the 50s, no longer took place due to overfishing, poaching, and environmental pollution. In the 90s, with the collapse of the USSR, a completely predatory and barbaric fishing for this fish began, which was simply not allowed to breed. This poaching of caviar resulted in a catastrophic decline in the sturgeon population. If by 1992 it amounted to 200 thousand individuals, by 2007, according to the calculations of ichthyologists, only 5 thousand sturgeons remained in the Caspian.
With the development of aquaculture, the dying sturgeon population began to recover.
In August 2007, a ten-year ban on catching sturgeon and exporting black caviar began in Russia and other countries of the Caspian Sea basin. In 2010, an international environmental organization introduced quotas for the countries that made the greatest efforts to restore the sturgeon population in the Caspian. According to them, Russia received the right to export up to 22 tons of caviar, but today Iran is the leader in its production.
On the shop window, sturgeon caviar is presented in the form of dummies, since it must be stored at a temperature of -2 ° C. Buyers, of course, are given jars of real caviar.
Black caviar on store shelves
But black caviar, like sturgeon and sterlet, can still be purchased in the store. This is the fish that is farmed artificially using aquaculture technology. Using this technology, to obtain caviar, female sturgeons undergo an operation resembling a cesarean section, after which the fish does not die, but continues to live and, at least 2-3 times more, you can get caviar from it. True, this not entirely natural way of obtaining caviar does not at all make it cheap. The price for a 500-gram can of black caviar is about 22-25 thousand rubles. Naturally, not everyone can afford to buy it. However, commercially available fresh sevryuzhina and sturgeon, as well as hot or cold smoked balyk from this fish are readily bought. Their cost is in the range of 2000 rubles per 1 kilogram.
