The big news coming out of the Caspian region for those with fat wallets and the taste for the finer things in life is that, for the first time in two years, the winter and fall will see the availability of a fresh supply of wild Caspian caviar. Time to break out the blini? Not so fast, at least not if you're a sturgeon or someone concerned about the Caspian's delicate environmental balance. From a report in the New York Times:
There will be a fresh supply of wild caviar from the Caspian
Sea on holiday blini this fall and winter, for the first time in two years. The
international convention that regulates trade in endangered species issued
quotas for the catch on July 23.
The decision has prompted outcries from environmentalists,
predictions of lofty prices and soon, presumably, cheering from aficionados of
wild Caspian caviar. (Without quotas, the producing countries cannot legally
export any caviar at all.)
To establish the quotas, the five producing countries on the
Caspian Sea — Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan — must
agree on what they consider to be sustainable amounts, which they did last
spring in Tehran. The countries bordering the Black Sea, Danube basin and Amur
River did not set quotas, so there will be no caviar from those sources.
A dam near the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa
Depending on which way you look at it, Turkey is either blessed or cursed with great hydroelectric potential. Based on the number of lawsuits local residents in Turkey's water-rich Black Sea area have been filing to stop the construction of dams in their area, it would appear that they don't look too favorably on Turkey's push to increase its hydroelectric capacity.
As the Turkish daily Radikal discovered in an internal government report on dam building, the Black Sea villagers have good cause to worry about the dam building. From an article about Radikal's report in the Hurriyet Daily News:
The ministry that approved hydroelectric power plants in the Black Sea region has admitted in an internal report that their construction damaged the environment in the latest blow to Turkey’s ambitious dam-building plans.
“Excavations … caused destruction in forested areas. Current flow and the quality of the water in streams are negatively affected as a result of filling the streambeds with soil,” said a report prepared by the body overseeing hydroelectric power plants under the Environment and Forestry Ministry and the State Waterworks Authority, or DSİ, daily Radikal reported Wednesday.
The internal report, written in 2009, only recently found its way to the media. It said 15 firms that built power plants in the Black Sea province of Rize had been fined a total of 513,000 Turkish Liras for causing environmental damage....
