Iran to release 5 million sturgeon fry in Caspian

Diminished stocks have made fishing sturgeon from the Caspian Sea illegal. Thus, Iran has turned to farming caviar producing fish, the Mehr news agency reports.

This year, Iran's farmed caviar will total more than one tonne, said Iranian Fisheries Organization head Gholam Reza Razeghi.

There are 17 sturgeon farms in Iran and the plan is to slowly add to their numbers.

In 2010, Iran released 3.6 million sturgeon fry into the Caspian followed by 4.8 million fry in 2011.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, there have been efforts to control Caspian Sea pollution and the overfishing of caviar.

According to the Tehran Convention, all Caspian Sea littoral countries are obligated to take necessary measures, individually or collectively, to reduce and control pollution of the sea. Enforcing the agreement is difficult.

The demand for the delicacy, and its price, has driven the fish to the brink of extinction. All of the Caspian Sea's species of sturgeon are listed as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

One of the world's oldest fish families, the sturgeon are estimated to have been around for 250 million years.


/Trend/