Caspian Wild Sturgeon Fishing Restrictions by Country

Five countries, one shared sea, no commercial sturgeon catch in 2026. The Caspian fisheries commission agreed to prohibit commercial fishing for the fish behind the region's wild caviar.

As checked on 4 November 2026, official reports confirm the agreement between Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Scientific and reproduction catches remain possible within agreed quotas. For anyone handling fish or caviar, the next step is to check the relevant country's national implementing rules.

The regional framework behind Caspian wild sturgeon fishing restrictions

The commission agreed the commercial fishing prohibition under a fisheries agreement, not directly under the Tehran Convention. The distinction matters when tracing the rules from a regional decision to a national permit.

The Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea, known as the Tehran Convention, entered into force on 12 August 2006. It provides the wider environmental framework, including protection and restoration of living resources, rather than a self-contained annual fishing prohibition.

The separate Agreement on Conservation and Rational Use of the Aquatic Biological Resources of the Caspian Sea was signed in Astrakhan on 29 September 2014 and entered into force in 2016. Article 10 established the Commission on the Conservation, Rational Use of Aquatic Biological Resources and Management of Their Shared Stocks of the Caspian Sea.

At its ninth meeting in Ashgabat, held from 24 to 26 November 2025, the commission agreed to prohibit commercial sturgeon fishing in 2026. Turkmenistan's official report confirms exceptions for science and reproduction within agreed quotas. Russia's fisheries authority also reports continuing restrictions on exports of the corresponding caviar and meat.

Keep three questions separate: what the commission agreed, what national law permits someone to catch, and what international trade documents allow. The caviar law hub explains how fisheries controls and wildlife trade rules fit together. For the geography, see wild caviar regions.

Country rules at a glance

Every entry below was checked on 4 November 2026. The table distinguishes the regional agreement from domestic rules.

Russia

In the text consolidated through April 2023, sturgeon bycatch had to be counted, recorded and immediately released with minimal injury, whatever its size or condition. The recording requirement specified the fishing journal.

Assess a present-day offer through the fish, not the branding: request the species, actual harvest origin and date, production method, chain of possession, and applicable capture and trade authorisations.

Russia's Federal Agency for Fisheries, Rosrybolovstvo, publishes these Volga-Caspian basin rules under Order No. 695. Its rules index lists a later amendment dated 11 March 2025. Check the current text before acting: the older release requirement does not capture every provision now applying on the Volga or elsewhere in the basin.

Iran

Scientific fishing requires written permission. Article 21 of Iran's 1995 Law of Exploitation and Protection of Aquatic Resources ties that permission to an operational plan. The law also provides for management restrictions by species, area, season, quantity and gear, but these general powers do not identify the sturgeon allocations authorised for 2026.

The translation names the Fisheries of Iran using historical institutional terminology. Confirm the current responsible office, broodstock permissions, river-specific conditions and bycatch instructions from the current Iranian instrument, rather than relying on that older institutional wording.

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan's national prohibition covers both catching sturgeon and using the fish or their roe. Alongside its participation in the 2026 regional suspension, Order No. 78 of 3 March 2026, registered on 10 March as No. 38112, applies to the Zhaiyk-Caspian basin and the Kigash.

The exceptions are specific: reproduction enterprises fulfilling state orders, scientific research fishing, and the state monopoly operator where a sturgeon catch quota exists.

For operations on the Ural, also called the Zhaiyk, or the Kigash, obtain the current species restriction and any scientific or hatchery allocation from the competent fisheries authority. Seasonal river closures published on the government portal are separate measures, not evidence that sturgeon fishing becomes permissible outside those dates.

Azerbaijan

A general commercial fishing application is not a wild sturgeon authorisation. Azerbaijan is covered by the commission's 2026 decision. A 2026 Agriculture Ministry notice directs commercial fishing quota applications to its Fisheries and Aquaculture Centre or designated ASAN service centres, without establishing permission to catch wild sturgeon.

Ask the Fisheries and Aquaculture Centre for the current sturgeon-specific implementing measure, scientific and hatchery conditions, bycatch rule and application to the Kura river. Neither a general fishing ticket nor a quota for another species should be treated as a sturgeon authorisation.

Turkmenistan

Scientific fishing and artificial reproduction have distinct legal routes in Turkmenistan. Its Fisheries and Aquatic Biological Resources Conservation Law, dated 21 May 2011, separates fisheries management from resource protection functions. Article 38 provides for scientific fishing permits; Article 14 places artificial reproduction under contracts with the authorised resource protection body.

An April 2026 amendment updates regulatory responsibilities, including procedures for fishing permits and reproduction. Confirm the current agency and sturgeon-specific permit conditions directly. The law's generic reference to an authorised body is not a reason to assume a ministry name.

Scientific catch, broodstock and restocking

Proposed fish collection must match an authorised purpose and agreed allocation. Broodstock means fish held or collected for breeding, and the regional exceptions concern scientific work and reproduction. Describing a collection as supporting conservation is not enough.

Turkmenistan's law also requires relevant waterbody users to undertake agreed measures to improve reproduction conditions. That duty is specific to the law described here: it establishes neither an identical release obligation across the Caspian countries nor any particular hatchery's results. For the wider picture, see restocking benefits and risks.

CITES quotas are a separate test

A fishing prohibition and an export quota answer different questions. So do an expressly published zero export quota and an unavailable quota record. Check each quota against the exporting country, species, specimen, source and quota year.

A CITES export quota record lists a Russian Federation entry for 2026 with a zero quota for Caspian caviar of Russian sturgeon, Acipenser gueldenstaedtii. It carries source code W, meaning wild specimens.

The Russian entry does not establish published zero quotas for all five countries. Check the current CITES export quota page for Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan by species and year. CITES and caviar explains the wider documentation framework.

Enforcement and offers of wild Caspian caviar

Enforcement is national. Turkmenistan's law expressly empowers its resource protection body to apply administrative penalties for breaches of fisheries rules. Penalty scales and offence classifications differ between the five states.

Assess a present-day offer through the fish, not the branding: request the species, actual harvest origin and date, production method, chain of possession, and applicable capture and trade authorisations. A national brand name, a Caspian address or a claim that the fish supported a hatchery programme cannot replace those records.

Treat an offer of newly commercially harvested wild Caspian caviar as inconsistent with the verified 2026 regional position unless the competent authorities establish a lawful basis. This does not establish an offence by a particular seller. A claim about older stock needs its own documentary assessment.

For proposed imports into the EU, the UK, the US, Switzerland, the UAE or China, seek clearance specific to the destination. The exporting country's documents alone do not settle admissibility, and nothing here grants national import permission.

Before accepting a consignment, obtain written confirmation from the relevant fisheries and CITES authorities and match the documents to the goods. A traceability label helps with that examination; it cannot establish the contents of a container on its own. For wider background, see sturgeon poaching.