I. REGIONAL OVERVIEW 



A. Baltic States 



The three Baltic countries, Estonia, 

 Latvia, and Lithuania, became independent 

 in 1991, after being part of the Soviet Union 

 for almost five decades. The Baltic fishing 

 industries which were part of the centrally 

 planned economy, directed by the Soviet 

 Ministry of Fisheries in Moscow, had to 

 readjust quickly to the new free-market 

 demands. Their fishing fleets were 

 previously supported by the giant (and 

 expensive) Soviet network of fishery support 

 vessels and representatives in foreign ports. 

 The Baltic states now have to secure their 

 own arrangements for access to fishing 

 grounds in foreign 200-mile zones. The 

 Baltic fisheries also had to face the loss of 

 the infrastructure and domestic Soviet sales 

 network on which they relied over the past 

 half century. Most importantly, they can no 

 longer count on cheap, subsidized diesel oil, 

 but have to purchase it with foreign 

 currencies. The difficult transition from a 

 command to a free-market economy has 

 been exacerbated by the need to reorganize 

 the administrative staffs following the 

 dissolution of the Soviet Western Fisheries 

 Administration in Riga. 



The capacity of the Baltic fishery fleets 

 exceeds the currently available fishery 

 resources. The moratorium on fishing off 

 Namibia and the loss of fishing in the 

 Moroccan 200-mile zone were especially 

 painful. To counter these unfavorable 

 developments, the Baltic countries have 

 concluded several bilateral fishery 

 agreements and have begun to reduce the 

 gross tonnage of their high-seas fleets. 



During the last few years, a total of 31 

 vessels with over 70,000 gross tons have 

 been decommissioned (16 of the units were 

 reflagged) and the process is by no means 

 ended. In July 1993, the Baltic states 

 owned 358 high-seas fishery vessels with a 

 gross tonnage of 1.2 million CRT. The 

 average age of these fleets is only 14 years, 

 but the maintenance and modernization of 

 the fleet is complicated by the fact that the 

 vessels were constructed in countries whose 

 current economic environment is not 

 conducive to efficient supply of spare parts 

 or major repairs. 



Among the most important factors for 

 the future profitability of the Baltic fishing 

 industries is the privatization program which 

 all three governments have begun. Another 

 way to obtain sufficient raw materials to 

 operate the vessels and the processing plants 

 lies in the joint ventures with foreign fishing 

 companies which still have abundant fishery 

 resources within their countries' 200-mile 

 economic zones. Leasing and chartering 

 arrangements will help in keeping the Baltic 

 fishermen employed. 



Estonia 



Estonia's fishing industry, based in the 

 country's two marine ports at Tallinn and 

 Parnu, employs about 30,000 people. In 

 1991, Estonian fishermen landed 315,000 

 metric tons of fish and shellfish, most of 

 which was exported; approximately 90 

 percent of exports were sold to the former 

 Soviet Union. The catch was mostly used to 

 produce edible fishery products, but over 20 

 percent was reduced to fishmeal (for animal 

 feeds) and fish oils. Estonians have always 

 been fishermen and the fishing industry 

 plays an important part in the country's 



