Fishing methods

Sturgeons are fished on their journey from marine waters to spawning grounds, in fresh waters around estuaries and along coastlines

The Soviet Caspian Sea coast used to be divided into 5 sectors: Baku, Makhachkala, Astrakhan, Guriev and Krasnovodsk. Unlike Iran, the former USSR had numerous floating stations, i.e. factory ships which, at the height of the season, could produce up to 40 tons of caviar a day!

Iran’s fisheries stretched along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea for almost 700km, from Astara to Bandar Turkman. They were divided into 4 fishing zones, including Anzali (14 stations) and Bandar (10 stations), where the catches were the most abundant!

Iran’s traditional sturgeon fishery refused to accept industrial catching methods. “Caviar factories”, as the Russians used to call their fishing boats, were simply unthinkable in Iran.

Indeed, it’s thanks to nature and the irreplaceable skills of the craftsmen that Iranian caviar was so sought-after.

On wooden boats with lateen sails, often fitted with a small auxiliary outboard motor, sturgeon fishermen set their standing nets perpendicular to the coast. The use of trawls was banned in Iran. The nylon nets were attached to floats and wooden buoys, weighted down with stones and set at a depth of 4 to 11 meters across the currents.

Depending on weather conditions, the flounder was checked once or twice a day. This daily check was necessary as the fish could suffocate if entangled in the mesh. The fish were picked up in boats with live chines maneuvered by a three-man crew. The fishermen caught the fish and examined the condition of the nets, untangling them and repairing them if necessary before putting them back in the water. To avoid damaging the roe, the sturgeon were placed on their backs.

As highly specialized craftsmen, they brought the fish back to port within a few hours, most of them alive, so that they could be processed immediately at the fishing stations.

In 1984, world caviar production was around 2,300 tons:
> Of the 2,000 tons produced in Russia, no more than 100 tons were exported (130 tonnes according to Soviet statistics). So the Russians ate a lot of caviar!
> of the 300 tons produced on the Iranian side, over 220 tons were exported.
In all, over 300 tons of caviar were exported worldwide.

Did you know? Wild Iranian caviar has always had the reputation of being better than wild Russian caviar for several reasons:

Geography: Deep waters, rich in gravel and renewed by constant currents, provide an ideal marine biotope for sturgeon. Similarly, for the rearing and growth of young fish, Iranian rivers and streams left in their natural state, with their intact hydro-biological climate, prove far superior to those of the northern Caspian Sea.

Fishing: Sturgeons migrate up northern rivers to spawn. Their eggs, at an advanced stage of maturity, are sticky, soft and lose the properties that make Iranian caviar: firm, sparkling pearls.

Know-how: Iranian masters perpetuate a traditional know-how that has remained manual to produce exceptional caviar.