Iranian environmentalists welcome lower caviar quotas.

Lower caviar export quotas for most of Iran's sturgeon have come as a relief to naturalists who say overfishing and pollution are ravaging stocks in the Caspian Sea, source of 90 per cent of world supply of the salty delicacy. Yazdan Keivany, head of fisheries at Isfahan University of Technology, said that he found the logic of the cut easy to fathom since each year fishermen haul in fewer sturgeon."It does not look good, when I look at the diagrams there is a decrease (in catches) every year," he said.

The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) earlier this month approved tighter export quotas on the precious roe of all but one species of Iranian sturgeon. Environmentalists estimate sturgeon stocks ar-ound the Caspian states of Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have slumped about 90 per cent since the late 1970s. "The main problem is the overfishing since the break-up of the Soviet Union," Keivany said.

Lawlessness in former Soviet states has ushered Mafia-style gangsters into the lucrative hunt for the Caspian's "black gold", green groups say.

Aficionados will pay more than $2,000 for a kilogram of "buttery" caviar from the prized Beluga sturgeon. Iran's Beluga export quota for 2003 was sliced nearly 28 per cent. Environmentalists have severely criticised Iran for continuing the condemned practice of open-sea fishing.

Falling exports have spurred Iran's caviar prices in the global market. The Abrar-e Eqtesadi financial newspaper reported that prices reached nearly $587 a kilogramme since March 21, a $40 year-on-year increase.

Sturgeon, long-sno-uted denizens of the deep, can live more than 50 years with the Beluga sometimes reaching 100. Nowadays scientists say life expectancy is 20 to 30 years. Reza Marandi, university lecturer in Tehran and expert in oil pollution, said a desire to make money from the Caspian's resources was trampling on environmental concerns. "Caviar production is now very low - oil spills have affected the sturgeon. People are just thinking economics," he said.

However, CITES Deputy Secretary-General Jim Armstrong, told Reuters he believed co-operation between Caspian states on managing stocks and stopping poaching was now paying dividends.