Ossetra past 30 years plus a high market demand for caviar have led the way for sturgeon farming, mainly for the production of caviar. Russia, Iran, members of the European Union, China and the USA were among the first; however, for the very same reasons countries outside the natural range of sturgeons also became involved (e.g. Uruguay, Arabian countries, Israel, and more recently Vietnam). Israel is a major producer of Russian Ossetra Caviar ("Acipenser gueldenstaedtii"). Branded as "Karat Caviar" recent exports are now available in the United States in order to meet the demand for caviar since there has been no
USS Sterlet (SS-392) to the western Pacific with the Seventh Fleet. On these cruises, usually of approximately six months duration, she participated in a host of exercises and war game problems and visited most major ports in the Far East, particularly those in Japan, Taiwan, China and in some of the Central Pacific islands. After her return from her final deployment in the summer of 1968, "Sterlet" was found to be unfit for further naval service. Accordingly, she was decommissioned on 30 September 1968, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on the following day. She rendered her last service