January 10, 2020
All five Caspian coastal states have agreed to continue their ban on fishing for sturgeon in the sea for another year, through the end of 2020. The ban has been in place since 2011, a response to the severe overfishing that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Iran has started major operations of farmed sturgeon on the Caspian coast and says caviar production in the current Persian year should reach 800 kilos by Now Ruz, up from 590 kilos the year before, a mere shadow of Iran’s caviar production in the last century, which topped off at 251 tons in 1990.