But then came a “black gold rush” for caviar, all but wiping out the species. Sturgeon catch along the Atlantic coast fell from as much as 7 million pounds a year to only 20,000 pounds by 1905 — and just 400 pounds by 1989, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In Maryland, a sturgeon catch of 700,000 pounds in 1890 plummeted to 22,000 pounds by the 1920s and even smaller numbers after that, until a coastwide moratorium on fishing for sturgeon began in 1998.