Boston.com / Latest News / Business / Proposed listing of beluga sturgeon as endangered species would make beluga caviar illegal

Once again, the government needed to be sued to consider an Endangered Species listing. Get used to it.

At any event, I don't eat caviar but have no objection to it in theory, so I don't have any reason to say that it shouldn't be imported -- if the species can survive. If the story is correct, the Beluga Sturgeon's population is a tenth of what it was twenty years ago. (I expect that the decline has accelerated since the breakup of the Soviet Union.) It's pretty easy to see what that trend promises for the species' long-term viability. Given that, the US should take a very close look at banning import of Beluga caviar. The former republics where harvesting takes place seem unable to control illegal harvesting; removing the demand seems the only other option if the supply can't be restricted.