he ordinary fishermen say that for the last 10 years poachers have been catching fish on this spot, mostly unhindered and using dynamite or homemade explosives made of fertilizers. They go out fishing in motorboats either early in the morning or late at night.

Fishing is one of the most lucrative businesses in modern day Azerbaijan. On the black market, a kilo of fresh sturgeon can be bought for 10 manats (US$12) while a kilo of black caviar costs around 120 manats (US$140). Overseas, these prices can be dozens of times higher.

International alarm about a steep decline in sturgeon stocks prompted the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, to halt exports of Beluga caviar from the Caspian Sea in 2006.

CITES lifted the ban in 2007, prompting objections from many environmentalists. One of them, Dr. Ellen Pikitch, co-founder of the organization Caviar Emptor, which monitors the caviar trade, called the decision a "death sentence," maintaining that the Beluga sturgeon has lost more than 90 percent of its population in recent years.

The Caspian Fish Company has a monopoly over most fishing in the Azerbaijani sector of the sea, but it appears powerless to rein in the poachers.