A new report warns that critically endangered sturgeons of the Danube River basin are at risk because of the persistent illegal trade in their caviar involving Bulgaria and Romania.
The report by the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic said more than 50 kilograms of illegal caviar originating in the two countries was reported by European Union member states between 2000 and 2009, while neither Bulgaria nor Romania reported illegal caviar seizures themselves.
The report's author, Katalin Kecse-Nagy, said the real volume of illegal trade was "likely to be considerably higher."
Bulgaria and Romania hold the only viable populations of wild sturgeons in the EU, and sturgeon fishing there has been banned.
The Black Sea is the world's second most important sturgeon fisheries in the world after the Caspian Sea.
The Danube is crucial to the fish's survival.
compiled from agency reports
The report by the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic said more than 50 kilograms of illegal caviar originating in the two countries was reported by European Union member states between 2000 and 2009, while neither Bulgaria nor Romania reported illegal caviar seizures themselves.
The report's author, Katalin Kecse-Nagy, said the real volume of illegal trade was "likely to be considerably higher."
Bulgaria and Romania hold the only viable populations of wild sturgeons in the EU, and sturgeon fishing there has been banned.
The Black Sea is the world's second most important sturgeon fisheries in the world after the Caspian Sea.
The Danube is crucial to the fish's survival.
compiled from agency reports