Se prohibe el comercio global de caviar

El esturión está seriamente amenazado debido al comercio ilegal de caviar.

CITES, the United Nations organisation which controls trade in endangered species, has effectively banned all international trade in caviar and other wild sturgeon products. The ban will remain until it can agree export quotas with the nations which produce them.

This report from Elizabeth Blunt:

Caviar is expensive because it is scarce, and it is scarce, at least in part, because it is so expensive. Prices as high as four hundred dollars for a small tin of the salty, black fish-eggs have encouraged massive overfishing of the sturgeon and widespread caviar smuggling. Add to this the fact that sturgeon are slow-growing and long-lived fish and take several years to reach maturity, and it is easy to see why populations have plummeted.

The legal export of caviar is already tightly regulated, with the countries which share the sturgeon fishing grounds having to agree export quotas each year in consultation with CITES. It is this process which has now broken down.

A CITES spokesman said that recent information indicated that the sturgeon species were in serious decline and the proposed quotas -- although lower than in previous years -- still didn't sufficiently reflect the lower stocks or allow for the amount lost to illegal fishing. He said countries wishing to export caviar had to demonstrate that their proposed catch and exports were sustainable in the long term, and without more information on this, CITES could not approve any quotas for 2006.

Since caviar has to be exported in the same calendar year in which the fish is caught, that effectively puts a ban on all international trade in caviar from wild fish until further notice.

scarce
hay escasez

encouraged
formentado

overfishing
sobrepesca

widespread caviar smuggling
contrabando extenso del caviar

long-lived
longevas

populations have plummeted
la población de esturión ha disminuido de forma alarmante

tightly regulated
estrictamente regulado

broken down
en este caso, quiere decir que las medidas de control han dejado de funcionar

lower stocks
no reflejan plenamente la disminución de las reservas

sustainable in the long term
garantizar la sostenibilidad a largo plazo

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