EDITOR AL New initiative for sturgeon especially those that are killed for caviar. The growing demand for the booming inter- In an editorial I wrote for this page in 1984 I national caviar market has stimulated uncon- questioned the cost-effectiveness of using con- trolled over-fishing and poaching of the main sumer boycotts as a conservation tool. I ar- commercial species in the Volga River- gued that, although they could be effective - Caspian Sea Basin (the beluga Huso huso, and provided two examples of where they had Russian sturgeon Acipenser guldenstaedti and been - they were costly, they often only acted stellate sturgeon A. stellatus) and in the Russian to salve the consciences of a few people, and Far East and China (the kaluga Huso dauricus did not tackle the fundamental problems of and the Amur river sturgeon A. schrencki). The unsustainable use of resources. To do that pol- beluga is the most vulnerable to overfishing: itical action was what was needed. dam construction has caused the loss of most However, there is no doubt that when con- of its natural spawning sites and in the last sumer demand is threatening the survival of few years it has not been restocked artificially species and when the political efforts to tackle in Russia because of lack of wild breeding the problem at source are lacking or slow to stock. The declines in commercial sturgeon move, then taking action at the consumer end species have increased the harvest of species of the chain is often the only way to take con- that had not previously been exploited com- servation action. But rather than persuade the mercially, including the Siberian sturgeon A. consumer to stop buying products of endan- baerii, which is now extremely threatened by gered species it may be more effective to target poaching in the Ob River basin. the sellers. The Sturgeon Specialist Group evaluated the In a new initiative announced at the Species status of 25 sturgeon and two related paddle- Survival Commission (SSC) meeting, which fish species using the new IUCN categories for preceded the World Conservation Congress in the 1996 Red List of Threatened Animals. All Montreal in October, the SSC is collaborating were found to be threatened, with six of them with IUCN's Environmental Law Commission critically endangered and 11 endangered. in taking such action to help save sturgeon The New York initiative hopes to buy time species from extinction. Nicholas Robinson of for the beluga while proposals are prepared Pace University Environmental Law Centre, for listing all sturgeon species on Appendix II White Plains, New York, USA (and Deputy of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Chair of the IUCN's Commission on Species (CITES) at its meeting in June 1997. A Environmental Law) is working with Vadim number of other initiatives are under way to Birstein (Chair, IUCN/SSC Sturgeon Specialist help sturgeon species in various parts of their Group) to draft New York State legislation to ranges. The Europe-based Society to Save the make it illegal to sell the caviar of threatened Sturgeon aims to restore Acipensor sturio in species and to require the species of caviar western Europe and USA's Kentucky State being sold to be identified by genetic testing. University is negotiating with Chinese auth- New York State passed and successfully im- orities on a breeding programme for the plemented, similar legislation in the 1970s to Chinese paddlefish Psephurus gladius. stop the sale of furs from endangered cat The most serious threat of all, however, is species and in the 1980s to ban the sale of the massive poaching and illegal trade, which wild-caught birds. With caviar sales booming is controlled by notorious criminal groups in in the major cities of the world, the action in Russia. It is hoped that the controls that will New York - planned to coincide with the peak be brought about by CITES listing and other of caviar sales at Christmas - will only deal actions to stem the demand at the consumer with a small part of the problem but it will end of the chain will help Russian authorities serve to raise awareness of its severity and to take action at the source. will act as a model to be copied elsewhere. All sturgeon species are in deep trouble, Jacqui Morris, Editor ©1997FFI, Oryx, 31 (1)

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