Caviar, the ultimate luxury food, may have made its last appearance on Christmas menus - because of the fall of communism.
The sturgeon that produce the "black gold" are rapidly approaching extinction because they are being over-fished by the independent states that have emerged since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The
annual catch in the Caspian Sea, where 90 per cent of the world's sturgeon live, has slumped 97 per cent because the fish have become so rare.
Early next year, an international conference will try to decide on emergency measures to protect them before they disappear, and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says a global ban on caviar may be imposed within six months.
Caviar from the roe of the sturgeon has been a luxury for centuries.
A spokesman for one importing firm said good quality caviar should be eaten only from a mother-of-pearl spoon - a silver or metal one spoils the taste - and should be accompanied by nothing apart from "a good Brut champagne."
Peter the Great employed 50 fishermen to keep the royal tables stocked with the "food of kings."
One of the first Bolshevik acts after the Russian Revolution was to make it a state monopoly and strictly control its trade.
The communists took care to conserve the supreme symbol of capitalist indulgence.
The Soviet Union had a treaty with Iran, the only other country then bordering the Caspian, to regulate sturgeon catches and conserve the stocks. But this collapsed with the breakup of the Soviet Union.
The new nations of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, which appeared around the world's largest inland sea, see the sturgeon as "hard currency with fins," conservationists say. The price of a pound of high-quality caviar can range from £300 ($1000) to £2000 ($6700).
Sturgeon, the world's largest freshwater fish, can live for 100 years, but take 18 years to reach sexual maturity.
As well, the females spawn only three times in their lives, making the species extremely vulnerable to over-fishing.
The new states have resisted all control on catches, and 90 per cent of the fish are caught before they have spawned, which means the chance to reproduce has gone.
Though sturgeons can grow to weigh more than a tonne, they are so heavily exploited that catching one weighing more than 45kg is rare.
The fish are also threatened by dams, which stop them migrating up rivers to spawn, by pollution, by plans to exploit oil from the sea and even by radioactive debris from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Russia has tried to save the fish by releasing 80 million fry every year and banning catching them in the sea.
But the rapid decline of the species, which has survived since the age of the dinosaurs 250 million years ago, continues.
This month, the committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species met to try to work out measures to conserve the fish. It will meet again early next year.
The WWF says this will be the last chance for countries to tackle the sturgeon crisis.
Caviar, the ultimate luxury food, may have made its last appearance on Christmas menus - because of the fall of communism.
The sturgeon that produce the "black gold" are rapidly approaching extinction because they are being over-fished by the independent states that have emerged since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The
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