Bulgarian authorities have announced a four-year ban on sturgeon fishing in the Danube river, in line with Romania, which banned fishing for the highly endangered sturgeons in 2006 for 10 years.
“It is of utmost importance that Bulgaria has finally joined Romania in this very important measure”, said Vesselina Kavrakova, programme manager of the World Wildlife Foundation Danube-Carpathian Programme in Bulgaria. “The Romanian moratorium came into force in April 2006, but considering that the Danube serves as a national border between Bulgaria and Romania, a one-sided ban was not effective”.
Sturgeons, which originated more than 200 million years ago, have outlasted the dinosaurs, but today most species are critically endangered.
Bulgaria and Romania hold the only viable populations of wild sturgeons in the EU but five of the six native sturgeon species in the Danube are critically endangered.
Several species of sturgeons are harvested for their roe which is made into caviar. This makes some sturgeons pound for pound the most valuable of all harvested fish.
“Overfishing because of persistent illegal trade in their caviar involving Bulgaria and Romania, is the biggest cause for concern, but habitat alteration, including hydropower, and pollution are also contributing causes,” Kavrakova said.
Caviar is one of the most expensive wildlife products. Among the sturgeon species native to the Danube basin is the Beluga sturgeon famous for its expensive caviar.
Dams such as the Iron Gates between Serbia and Romania have cut off the migration routes of sturgeons, which has led to loss of spawning habitats, impacting sturgeon populations. According to the World Sturgeon Conservation Society, the Danube is the only large river system in Europe where protection of existing but dwindling sturgeon stocks is still possible.
“What we need now, is to see various activities conducted in support of sturgeon populations, for example restocking and monitoring of the status of sturgeons. We need to see an effective information campaign among fishing communities and a true enforcement of the ban”, Kavrakova said.
“We want to see that both Romania and Bulgaria raise awareness among enforcement agencies of the illegal caviar trade and strengthen their capacity to control and monitor the trade”, said Kavrakova.
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