2. Fleet Background 



The FRG operates several distinct fishing fleets, 

 including mussel harvesting vessels, a cutter fleet 

 (coastal vessels), and a high-seas fleets The high- 

 seas fleet includes 3 components: a middle water 

 fleet, a fleet specializing in the catch of shoaling 

 species (herring, capelin), and a deep-sea fleet. The 

 fleets traditionally operate out of Bremerhaven, 

 Cuxhaven and Rostock.* 



1»U 



1SI5 



■Vessels •uer 5#t-GnT "•T«nnaje 



Figure 1. Germany's high-seas fleet, 1975-92. 



The West Germans pioneered the use of factory 

 trawlers in distant waters and the "one-boat method 

 of mid-water trawling."' The Baader fish cutting 

 machines made it possible for German fishermen to 

 produce frozen fillets economically at sea.'" The 

 FRG, thus, should be one of the world's leading 

 fishing nations. Instead the German fishing industry 

 has slowly collapsed. There were 40 companies 

 operating 230 high-seas vessels in 1950. This 

 declined to 13 fishing firms operating 196 vessels in 

 1960. Many of Germany's high-seas factory stern 

 trawlers were built in the 1960s, including the 

 Othmarschen (1,400-GRT), the Hamburg (1,800- 

 GRT), the Bonn (2,557-GRT, the first of six 

 "university" class factory stern trawlers), the 

 Osterreich (2,700-GRT) and Sonne (2,700-GRT) 

 launched in 1969. Many of these vessels were well- 

 designed and well-equipped factory trawlers 

 considered the "world's finest and most efficient 

 frozen fillet producing stern trawlers."" 

 Unfortunately, despite the construction of these 

 massive vessels, the German high-seas fisheries 

 declined to 10 firms operating 108 vessels in 1970.'' 

 Fourteen new Bremen-dass stern trawlers were built 

 in the early 1970's, but the establishment of 200-mile 



fishery zones in Germany's traditional fishing 

 grounds had a major impact on the nation's high-seas 

 fisheries. There were only 4 firms'' operating 56 

 high-seas fishing vessels in 1980. The FRG high- 

 seas fishing fleet of 17 vessels was restructured in 

 1986 to operate under 2 firms: Deutsche Fisch fang 

 Union, Cuxhaven GmbH and Bremerhaven Operating 

 Company.'" Faced with declining stocks and 

 increasing competition from foreign fishermen, the 

 German high-seas fleet declined to 14 vessels by 

 1988. On October 3, 1990, the German Democratic 

 Republic and the Federal Republic Germany united. 

 This resulted in former GDR vessels being added to 

 the FRG fishing fleet; most of these vessels have 

 since been sold. 



a. Loss of traditional grounds: 



German distant-water vessels fished off the 

 United States, Canada, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, 

 and Norway between 1950 and 1970. Approximately 

 half of Germany's catch came from distant-waters by 

 the early 1970s." Many countries established 200- 

 mile exclusive economic zones in the mid- to late- 

 1970s and either excluded or phased out foreign 

 fishing in their waters. The Germans hoped that the 

 European Community would establish a Common 

 Fisheries Policy (CFP) that would assist member 

 states to gain access to former fishing grounds.'* The 

 creation of the CFP, however, was delayed by 

 political wrangling.'^ By 1980, the German deepsea 

 fleet was facing serious difficulties." Reductions in 

 the FRG quota off Greenland resulted in 14 high-seas 

 vessels being considered as redundant by 1984." 

 Norwegian authorities gradually imposed stricter 

 conditions on vessels operating in their waters; if a 

 vessel's total catch included more than 15-percent of 

 undersized fish, the vessel was required to leave 

 Norwegian waters. Loss of traditional fishing 

 grounds off Canada and the United States also had a 

 negative impact on FRG high-seas fleet owners 

 during the early 1980s. In 1983, the CFP was 

 established and the EC acted to assign total allowable 

 catch (TAC) quotas. However, German fishermen 

 were forced to share their quotas with other EC 

 members. In retrospect, it is clear that the advent of 

 200-mile limits hastened the demise of the German 

 high-seas fishing fleet. 



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