KALUGA, December 22 (RIA Novosti) - Black market sales of prized black caviar in Russia dropped by half in 2008, the head of Russia's fisheries regulator said on Monday.

"In 2007 illegal sales of black caviar amounted to $1 billion. We managed to cut it by 50-60% this year," Andrei Krainiy said at the opening ceremony of a sturgeon breeding center in the Russian city of Kaluga, 300 km southwest of Moscow.

In 2002, Russia banned commercial sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea in an effort to combat the species' declining population, which has been cut more than 95% in the last 15 years due to rampant poaching in the region.

The Caspian Sea sturgeon, caught in five coastal states (Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran) accounts for almost 90% of the world's black caviar. According to the Russian experts, it will take at least 10 years to restore the sturgeon population in Russian waters.