In the same way that the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) orchestrated a misleading and decisive campaign against a planned salt evaporator project at Laguna San Ignacio that cost an economically deprived part of Mexico 250 permanent jobs (see Sustainable eNews, January 2002), Caviar Emptor is on the brink of securing an end to all imports of beluga caviar into the United States. The common denominator here is NRDC (declared annual income $41 million), which is the main partner in the Caviar Emptor joint business venture that also includes the Wildlife Conservation Society and SeaWeb.

The main argument of Caviar Emptor is that beluga sturgeon is "on the brink of extinction largely due to a demand for (it) around the world." From this assertion follows the prescription that beluga caviar should not be imported into the United States and Caviar Emptor’s legal action to prompt the Fish and Wildlife Service to list the beluga sturgeon as endangered.

In fact, the beluga sturgeon, though depleted, is not on the brink of extinction. Its population is at low levels and has to be carefully managed, but its plight is well-documented and those who work in the industry cooperate by applying conservative catch quotas and organizing extensive restocking programs that will preserve the fish for the future.

Similarly, to say that a high level of demand in the west has triggered the decline of the beluga sturgeon is to drastically over-simplify the situation. The main economic factor at work here is the ease with which illegal suppliers have been able to circumvent the system, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union.

Criminalizing the activities of the good guys now has two negative effects. First, it attaches an additional premium to beluga caviar that will make poaching even more lucrative. That will increase the supply of illegal beluga caviar. Second, it removes the reasons and financial resources for restocking programs. Poachers have no incentive to invest in sustaining their activities. If the beluga should ever become extinct, the poachers will simply move on to other activities. So the criminalization of the beluga industry will almost certainly guarantee that demand will outpace supply until stocks are so low that poachers no longer feel it is worthwhile continuing to catch them.

Caspian range states have been busy addressing the problem of poaching and could probably do with more help from Washington in this area. But helping to beat poachers isn’t sexy enough for the professional fundraisers in Washington, DC who gain much more self-serving publicity by targeting and judging businesses that operate within the legal system and trying to hold them "accountable" for their activities.

There have been no successful letter-writing campaigns against illegal caviar poachers or ivory traders because people who don’t care for laws are also unmoved by mailbags of orchestrated postcards or petitions from wealthy westerners.