Customs officers, the police, the army, the security service and the environmental protection agency were part of the determined effort to stamp out the illegal trade in the precious sturgeon, whose roe is one of the world's finest delicacies. The Kazakhs say apart from the poachers, this year's haul also includes 62 tons of illegally caught sturgeon and one ton of black caviar. The sturgeon poached in Kazakhstan this year amounts to almost two thirds of the quota which Kazakhstan produces officially each year. Apart from the economic value of the fish, Kazakhstan, like the other countries bordering the Caspian, is fighting to save the fish from extinction. The female sturgeon takes up to 25 years to reach sexual maturity, when it starts producing the valuable eggs.
Poachers have no qualms about taking immature females.
Yet whatever efforts the Kazakhs and others make against the black marketeers, the fish also face a severe environmental threat. With Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan drilling for oil in the Caspian, pollution could contribute to the extinction of a fish which has survived for 250 million years.