Export quotas for sturgeons


 

Concerning export quotas for sturgeons and paddlefish of the Order Acipenseriformes relating to trade in caviar and meat which come from shared stocks of these species, the Conference of the CITES Parties has agreed specific rules in Resolution Conf. 12.7 (Rev. CoP14).

For countries which share the stock of a given species, export quotas (which run from 1 March to the last day of February the following year) must be derived from catch quotas that are based on an appropriate regional conservation strategy and monitoring regime.The export quotas, which should normally be agreed by all the range States sharing the stock, must be provided to the Secretariat by 31 December of the previous year, together with the scientific data used to establish the catch and export quotas. If the quotas have not been communicated by the deadline, then the relevant range States have a zero quota until such time as the quotas are submitted and CITES Parties are recommended not to accept imports of caviar and meat from these stocks.

These requirements do not apply to specimens from aquaculture or from stocks found only in one country.

The sturgeon quotas can be checked for the following years: