corporations. The Bulgarian high-seas company was 

 forced into bankruptcy and for it to continue 

 operations it will have to be bailed out by government 

 funds. In Romania also, the industry is still 

 govemment-ovraed and, like everywhere in the 

 former communist countries, its two principal goals 

 are: 1) to maintain the full use of the fishery fleet and 

 the concomitant full employment of its fishermen, 

 and 2) to export fish to earn hard currency. 



In Poland, the high-seas fishing industry has 

 better maintained its viability and, aldiough the catch 

 has decreased somewhat and the high-seas fleet 

 shrunk, it continues to maintain a powerful presence 

 on the world oceans. The future, however, is 

 uncertain. Almost the endre Polish high-seas fleet 

 has been concentrated in 1992 and 1993 in the 

 international waters of the Sea of Okhotsk, an enclave 

 surrounded by the Russian 200-mile zone. The 

 Russian Federation, claiming that the fishery 

 resources in that area, as well as their originating 

 stocks in the Russian zone, are in danger of being 

 overfished, are demanding that the Poles, along with 

 the Koreans and the Chinese, stop fishing there. The 

 Poles (and others) refused to do so, stressing that 

 their fishery in international waters is not subject to 

 regulation by coastal states. The Russians are 

 seeking a moratorium on foreign fishing in the Sea of 

 Okhotsk. If this occurs, the Polish high-seas fleet 

 will have to rapidly find new resources, or even more 

 rapidly, reduce the number of its vessels. 



The Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia 

 (SFRJ) ceased to exist in 1991 when Croatia and 

 Slovenia declared their independence. The country's 

 fisheries were based on the Adriatic Sea except for an 

 unsuccessful attempt in the 1970s to fish for tuna. 

 Yugoslavia has had no high-seas vessels since 1982. 

 The newly formed states are not expected to expand 

 into high-seas fisheries in the near future. 



G. LATIN AMERICA 



Few Latin American countries currently conduct 

 significant distant-water fisheries, or are likely to 

 initiate them in the foreseeable future. Latin 

 American countries conduct mostly coastal fisheries, 

 but a few are capable of distant-water/high-seas 

 operations. Chilean fishermen conduct relatively 

 limited distant-water operations, but the country's 

 dynamic fishing industry is gradually expanding liigh- 



seas longline operations in tlie southeastern Pacific 

 and trawl fisheries off the Falklands and other 

 southern Atlantic islands. Cuba conducted Latin 

 America's largest distant-water fishery during the 

 1980s on various Atlantic and Pacific grounds. The 

 termination of the Soviet oil subsidy, however, has 

 forced the Cubans to end almost all of these 

 operations. Mexico has a modem fleet of tuna purse 

 seiners which is capable of distant-water operations. 

 The fleet is primarily deployed off the country's own 

 coast and off neighboring countries in the eastern 

 tropical Pacific. Some vessel owners are currently 

 seeking alternative distant-water grounds because of 

 the problems associated with marketing eastern 

 Pacific tuna. The Government has heavily subsidized 

 the industry in the past, but the current 

 Administration has terminated such support. It is 

 unclear if Mexican tuna companies will be able to 

 initiate new distant-water fisheries without 

 Government subsidies. Venezuela also deploys tuna 

 seiners in the eastern tropical Pacific and faces many 

 of the same problems Mexican tuna fishermen 

 confront. Venezuelan fishermen also deploy a variety 

 of tuna and other vessels off the neighboring 

 countries in the Caribbean and on the Guianas Banks. 



Foreign fishermen deployed substantial effort off 

 Lafin America during the 1980s. Foreign catches 

 peaked at about 2.5 million tons in 1989-90. Much 

 of this catch was harvested by the heavily subsidized 

 state-owned fleets of the communist countries 

 (Bulgaria, Cuba, Poland, and the USSR). When 

 the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991 and the Soviet oil 

 subsidy was no longer available, these countries could 

 no longer continue to support unprofitable distant- 

 water activities. Other countries continue much 

 smaller, but more lucrative, operations. Japan and 

 Korea exhibit remarkably similar fishing patterns off 

 Latin America. The two countries conduct 

 substantial longline fisheries for tuna and billfish off 

 the western coast of South America and shrimp 

 fisheries along the northern coast. They initiated a 

 squid fishery off the Falkland Islands in the early and 

 mid 1980s and off Peru and Ecuador in 1990. Both 

 countries reported sharp overall catch increases off 

 Latin America in 1991. Taiwan fishermen also 

 conduct tima longline fisheries and initiated 

 significant squid fishing off the Falklands in 1986. 

 Spain initiated a significant squid fishery in 1986 off 



