Caviar sturgeon from the Sea of Azov began reaching the tables of aristocratic and noble Byzantine Greeks in the 10th century, after the commencement of large-scale trading between the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus'. The main types of caviar are Beluga, Sterlet, Kaluga hybrid, American osetra, Ossetra, Siberian sturgeon and Sevruga. The rarest and costliest is from beluga sturgeon that swim in the Caspian Sea, which is bordered by Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan. Wild caviar production was suspended in Russia between 2008 and 2011 to allow wild stocks to replenish. Azerbaijan and Iran also allow the fishing of sturgeon
USS Sterlet (SS-392) gun. On 31 October, she made a night surface attack on a tanker previously damaged by and apparently sank it with a spread of six torpedoes. "Sterlet" then joined "Trigger" in escorting the damaged into Saipan. From there, "Sterlet" put to sea on 10 November with six other submarines in a coordinated attack group. On the night of 15 November, she, "Trigger", and engaged in a gun duel with an enemy sub chaser. "Sterlet" completely depleted her supply of five-inch (127 mm) shells in the battle and was forced to sink the enemy craft with torpedoes early the following morning.