Posted on June, 20 2006

Vienna, Austria/Bucharest, Romani – A Romanian ban on the commercial fishing of all wild sturgeon species for the next ten — which came into force on 4 May 2006 — has to be followed up by other countries in the region in order to restore declining sturgeon populations in the Danube river basin.

The best occasion to initiate such decisions in Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro and Ukraine is the upcoming CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) meeting of the north-western Black Sea and Lower Danube Sturgeon region, which will take place in Sarulesti, Romania, from 21–22 June 2006.

The Black Sea once harboured some of the most productive sturgeon populations. Sturgeons are fished mainly for caviar, although their meat and skin are also widely used in the region. Poorly regulated fisheries have caused severe decline in populations due to overfishing, which almost entirely disrupted the fish species' natural spawning in the Danube River.

“We urge Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro and Ukraine to follow Romania’s lead and take steps to ensure adequate, transboundary conservation and management measures in order to promote long-term positive effects on the Danube sturgeon populations,” says Dr Christine Bratrich, Freshwater Team Leader for WWF International's Danube-Carpathian Programme.

Mobilizing regional efforts for a transboundary approach for the management and conservation of Danube sturgeon, WWF facilitated and launched an action plan for the recovery, protection and conservation of endangered sturgeons in 2005. The action plan is the product of a joint effort of regional experts from Danube countries — the plan has been published by the European Council and endorsed by the Bern Convention. Its aim is to raise public awareness and to create a common framework for the implementation of urgent measures. The immediate and substantial decrease in fishing pressure through the Romanian ban is a good first step in the right direction. Furthermore, the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) included sturgeon among the issues to be discussed and integrated into the management planning process for the Danube river basin.

Nevertheless, the path towards safeguarding the producer of valuable caviar is long. Around 450 fishermen occasionally catch sturgeons every year in Romania. Caviar ranges in retail value from €300/kg at unofficial markets to €6,000/kg in luxury sales outlets. Safeguarding local livelihoods and alternative sources of income is crucial for the successful implementation of the ban on commercial sturgeon fishing.

Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and Ukraine are parties to CITES and have agreed to implement the Regional Strategy for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Sturgeon Populations of the north-western Black Sea and Lower Danube River. WWF calls for coherency with the agreements signed, and urges the signatory parties to act and engage in action in accordance with international conventions on sustainable and sound management of sturgeon resources.

END NOTES:

• Research on age structure of sturgeons captured in Romania performed in the past five years revealed a critical decrease in the number of sturgeons born during 1990–1999 that survived to sustain the population. Due to this, only eight specimens of adult Danube sturgeons were captured in 2005 in Romania. Considering the alarming data revealed by fishery scientists, as well as the reported decrease in catches (from 37.5 tons in 2002 to 11.8 tons in 2005 ), the Romanian authorities adopted unilateral conservation regulations on 4 May 2006. By a common Order of the Romanian Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, the government issued a ban on commercial fishing of all the wild sturgeon species for the next ten years.

• Status, trends and management of sturgeon and paddlefish fisheries is a study done by researchers from the Pew Institute for Ocean Sciences, published in Fish and Fisheries no. 6, 2005. The study shows how all major sturgeon fisheries have surpassed peak productivity levels, with 70% of major fisheries posting recent harvests <15% of historic peak catches and 35% of the fisheries examined crashed within 7-20 years of inception.

Further information:
Orieta Hulea – Coordinator for the Lower Danube Green Corridor Programme, WWF Danube Carpathian Programme, Tel: +40 744 980 461, email: ohulea@wwfdcp.ro  
Luminita Tanasie – Communication Manager, WWF Danube Carpathian Programme, Tel: +40 744 16 32 83, email: ltanasie@wwfdcp.ro