Let's speak about one of the most important problems - water
pollution. It's very urgent nowadays. The result of it is that some species of fish
disappear. The water in the oceans, seas and rivers becomes polluted because ships lose
oil or put trash into the water. Many fish are dying in the sea others are getting
contaminated. Catches have fallen by more than 90% in the last decade. Ten years ago the
factory 'Russkaya Ikra' processed 1,300 tons of caviar. Now they are lucky to produce
75 tons. The fabled giant Beluga sturgeon has disappeared. The last recorded 60- year- old
Beluga was caught in 1989 and weighed 988 kilos including 120 kilos of caviar.
Another reason of fish disappearing is poaching. The kilogram of caviar
in the belly of the Sevruga sturgeons are worth $40 wholesale on the Volga Delta and up to
$1200 in London and Paris. The arithmetic is deadly for fish. The great Caspian caviar
fishery threatens the sturgeon with extinction. On the Volga in Russia, on the Ural River
in Kazahstan and on the open Caspian Sea caviar poachers are butchering a species. Experts
say that so many sturgeon are being poached that next year could be the last caviar
producing season for many years. The World Wildlife Fund put sturgeon on the list of
threatened species last year.
