On Friday, the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) announced export quotas for caviar and other sturgeon products from the Caspian States in 2010, the official site of the UN reported.
The quotas were agreed at a meeting of representatives of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, which was held June 14-16 in Tehran. CITES's new permit for export of caviar and sturgeon meat is valid from March 1, 2010 to February 28, 2011.
Recognizing that the sturgeon reserves in the Caspian Sea are declining in recent years, the littoral states have reached an agreement among themselves to reduce the quota for the catch of these fish. In the context of these agreements, the total quota for the export of caviar and sturgeon in 2010 was declined compared to 2008, when such quotas were approved last time. Compared to 2008, the quota of Azerbaijan on fishing in the Caspian Sea has been reduced seven percent to 6.7 percent.