The Russian Cabinet has imposed a limit of 85.44 tons on the export of sturgeon caviar in 2000.

This includes 28.44 tons obtained in 1999. A quota of 220 tons, which includes 50 tons made in 1999, has also been imposed on the export of products other than caviar made from sturgeon fish, the Government Information Department reports. The quota does not cover live fish and sturgeon-fish products, including caviar, obtained by fish farms from their own shoals. The quota includes what Russian fish farms obtain from fish caught in the Volga, as well as 2.5 tons of the Azerbaijani export quota and 4.44 tons of the Turkmen quota of caviar, in particular 1.44 tons harvested in 1999, and 20 tons of sturgeon products of the Azerbaijani quota. Russia exported 120 tons of black caviar in 1998. The State Fishing Committee predicted a decrease in the harvest at the start of this year's fishing season. Russian fishermen may catch 560 tons of sturgeon in the Caspian drainage area, which is 62 tons below last year's quota and just over one-half of the 1998 quota, which exceeded 1,000 tons. The harvest from the fishing season totaled just over 100 tons of beluga, sturgeon and stellate sturgeon, or below 20% of the quotas. Experts attribute this decrease to the operation of numerous hydraulic power stations on the Volga and a sharp increase in industrial waste injected into the river.