Iran, UNESCO to Set Up Nat’l Caviar Museum in Gilan

A memorandum of understanding was recently signed between the head of Iranian National Commission for the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Hojjatollah Ayyoubi, and the CEO of Specialized Agricultural Services Holding Company, Mohammad Mojabi, to found Iran’s National Caviar Museum.
The museum will be located in the city of Kiashahr in the northern Gilan Province, Mehr News Agency reported.
Based on the MoU, the two sides will collaborate on international issues related to caviar and for compiling the oral history of the Caspian Sea caviar. 
A total of 2,500 tons of sturgeon meat and 10 tons of farmed caviar were produced in the last Iranian year (ended March 19, 2020), according to Hossein Abdolhay, the deputy head of Iran's Fisheries Organization for aquaculture affairs. 
Announcing that demand for sturgeon fry stands at 1-2 million annually, the official said, “Demand has always outweighed sturgeon fry output. However, the recent entry of private sector players in the production of sturgeon species has solved this problem in the current year.” 
The official noted that the total pond area devoted to shrimp farming was 12,336 hectares last year, from which the country produced 46,000 tons of shrimp last year, IRNA reported.
The Caspian littoral states have decided to extend the ban on fishing sturgeons for commercial purposes until the end of 2020, which has been in place since 2011. 
As per the agreement, sturgeons can only be harvested for research purposes.
Caspian Sea, in northern Iran, is the world’s primary and largest habitat of the beluga, the most famous sturgeon species, as well as four other sturgeon species.
However, the deteriorating condition of Caspian Sea has long been threatening this fish with extinction. The declining sturgeon population and the ban on their fishing have caused a downtrend in Iran’s caviar exports.
Studies show that most of the world’s sturgeon spawn in the rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea. 
Iran has some of the harshest laws on poaching the fish while authorities have sought to persuade other countries in the region to implement similar regulations to protect the fish.
The long, prehistoric fish, whose glittery, bead-like eggs make the choicest caviar, had been driven nearly to extinction by overfishing.
Now, dozens of Iranian producers are raising sturgeons legally on fish farms.
According to Nabiollah Khounmirzaei, the head of Iran Fisheries Organization, Iran produced 2,800 tons of sturgeon meat as well as 590 kilograms of farmed caviar in the last Iranian year (March 2019-20).