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| Czar Fish |
Czar Fish
Just as two small sturgeon are about to catch a rose, as a crowd of Russian fishermen in their nets.
Footage on the Volga River has become commonplace in modern Russia, where caviar poaching has destroyed species considered to be national pride.
"In the old days, we used to catch sturgeon, which weighs between 40 and 50 kg or 60 kg (132 lb)," said Pavel Sijaranov, head of Lenin fisheries in southern Russia.
"Now there is no sturgeon of that size left," he said, after two immature fishes, known as sterlets, were released back into the Volga.
The relentless hunt for the so-called "Czar fish" and its precious eggs has achieved such a large proportion in post-Soviet Russia that the prehistoric creature, which had outlived the dinosaurs, has now pushed itself to the edge of extinction.
Russia's wild capitalism and the reforms of the 1990s caused a severe setback for fishing in Zengala, a small, once-flourishing city in the Volga Delta, where sturgeon surgeons arrive in the Caspian Sea as they mature.
Read more: Czar Fish - Caviar poaching kills Russia's great "Tsar fish"
Two hours by boat from the regional capital Astrakhan, the dust swirls in the hot air, and the roads dotted with mainly wooden huts look almost deserted. An alcoholic sleeps on the side of a pit road.
Poverty and mass unemployment drive many to try their luck on poaching. Some of his fellow-villagers are still unable to believe that Sturgeon has taken so little time to disappear.
"This place was once with fish. There were fish there and there, and there - almost everywhere, ”said Alexander Kuznetsov, 76, pointing to the river.
"You won't be able to walk (in the water) - the fish will knock you down ... Now where has it all gone? I don't know."
LOST BATTLE?
In a bid to stem poisoning, Russia banned black caviar exports in 2002, when it declared the situation grim, and allows only nine tonnes of fragility to be sold in the domestic market each year.
But a steep drop in sturgeon stocks has already killed the world's largest inland institution of water on the Caspian Sea and the source of four-fifths of the world's black caviar.
During the Soviet period, experts estimated that an annual sturgeon would be caught at 20,000 tons of metric tons and 2,000 tons of caviar.
Since the 1970s, poaching has reduced the sturgeon population by 90 percent, according to the Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosariboblastvo). The stock is down about 40 percent since the turn of the millennium.
The Russian tussar created a monopoly for the sale of caviar, and ordinary people paid no less tribute to the great fishes.
During the Bolshevik Revolution before 1917, churches and monasteries were not allowed to ring their bells on the Volga, when giant sturgeon polluted the Caspian, fearing a disturbance in their spanning.
In Soviet times, the authorities kept tight control over the occupation. But as a rule, a Soviet activist kept a tin of cherished roe in the fridge for the New Year holiday or the May celebration of World War Two Victory Day. Although inexpensive, fragility was often in short supply.
Today, criminals bring black caviar to wealthy capitals around the world. In Moscow, prices for beluga - which are considered the best caviar - reach $ 2,000 or per kilogram.
Andrei Vodopyanov, the head of the Astrakhan Regional Fishing Control Authority, is accused of fighting at the grassroots level of illegal business - local poachers. But he also understands what many people call breaking the law.
“Bad ecology and dwindling (fishing) quotas mean that people simply dig their jobs, unable to earn a living through legal means. To feed their families, they are often forced to go poaching instead, ”he said.
His team of "river police" faces a difficult task, often setting free suspected predators who throw water into their fishing nets and usually have only available evidence.
"I know the law, I know the court cases," one such suspect said, fined only for lack of a proper license for his motorboat. "But what will they bring me to court for?
"Going to the river to find food for my child?" Should I go to jail for that? Give me a job The entire village is useless. No single enterprise is operating. "
Meanwhile, the people of Vodopanov pulled a rope with a razor-sharp hook, one of which comes to the channel for sturgeon spawning. Even a minor scratch means imminent death for a man after his exhausting stay.
Proposal for mass exams?
In 2000 Russia banned the commercial capture of beluga, a predator known for its longevity and size: the largest of sturgeon, it reaches over 5 meters (16 ft) long and weighs a ton ( 2,200 pounds).
In 2005 Moscow banned the commercial capture of Russian sturgeon - the most populous in the Caspian Basin - and sturgeal sturgeon.
But scientists say this is not enough and calls for joint action by all five Caspian states, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
Raisa Khodorevskaya, a leading expert in sturgeon and a department head at the Caspian Fisheries Research Institute, said that it is not necessary for Russia to refrain from commercial fishing, while some other littoral states have made frequent catches.
Catching at sea should be banned, she argued, because in this case fishermen and hunters alike catch sturgeon that often do not reach maturity for spawning. Depending on the variety and sex of the sturgeon, they may take up to 18 years to mature.
A few decades ago, shops in Volga cities were packed with huge volumes of tin and sturgeon of cheap black caviar.
By bitter irony, today's Astrakhan hosts a unique Sturgeon Museum - a serious sign that it may one day become a mere exhibit.
Khodorevskaya, whose institution released millions of young sturgeon into the wilderness each year, said Russia had a delay of perhaps 10 years in starting the fight for elite fishes.
"Sturgeon is Russia's national pride," she said. We've been a while ... (but) I believe you can conserve this fish - if you have proper control, protection and breeding.
"The Russians say: the value of a thing is the best that it wants. '
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