Abstract Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing driven by artisanal small‐scale fisheries is a critical threat to global biodiversity and is exemplified by the commercial extinction of Caspian sturgeons ( Acipenser and Huso ). A key knowledge gap persists regarding the scale and behavioral dynamics of these operations. We tested the hypothesis that persistent high‐volume sturgeon poaching is sustained not by fleet growth but by an intensification of fishing effort per boat, a behavioral adaptation to state containment policies. We administered structured questionnaires to 53 members of 24 sturgeon fishing brigades (SFBs) in Dagestan, Russia, from 2020 to 2021 and verified the data collected with written catch records. To overcome data limitations, we developed a seasonal (September to June) analytical model. This included indirect standardization to control for seasonality and factor analysis to deconstruct catch trends. Survival analyses (Kaplan–Meier) were used to validate changes in the timing and intensity of fishing activity. From 2018 to 2021, the
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