WWF of Russia: Black caviar shop and bar open in st. petersburg

The caviar bar in the center of the Northern Capital together with WWF will revive the culture of sturgeon products in Russia. On June 15, in St. Petersburg the first in our country restaurant opened which guarantees to its clients only legal sturgeon products from official and reliable Russian manufacturers of the sturgeon aquaculture. Here they are planning to serve and sell black caviar, and to enlighten consumers, to distribute WWF educational brochures, to give lectures on sturgeon species, to tell about social and ecological responsibility of the sellers and buyers. The Caviar Russia company is the partner of WWF in the stable fishery programme one of the main activities of which is the development of the responsible market of fish products. The project financially supports the WWF work on preservation of rare sturgeon species. Despite the ban of sturgeon fishing their number continues reducing dramatically. 9 of 11 species of sturgeon fishes in Russia must enter the Red List. The main damage was caused in the Soviet period, during mass construction of hydroelectric power stations which dams did not let fishes go to their spawning areas. Now, poachers continue sturgeon exterminating. Counterfeit products took up to 80% of the market in 2013. According to Alexander Moiseev, the coordinator of the WWF stable fishery programme, the honest business is one of the main partners in fight against illegal sturgeon fishing, “One of the areas of the WWF work on introduction of the principles of stable fishery is transformation of the fish products market, development of responsible trade and conscious consumption. Today, the honest, transparent sturgeon aquaculture business incurs huge losses because of the competition to illegal production, and intends to drive it out of the market. Blocking access for poachers to sale, the responsible business helps to keep the natural sturgeon population, and the conscious choice of the buyer in favor of legal aquacultural products will help to stop dramatical destruction of the natural wealth of our country — sturgeon fishes.”. Within the stable fishery programme WWF works in a few directions. Except development of the legal sturgeon market, they are research and restoration of the natural habitats of these fishes, the development of measures for their protection.