deployed on the high-seas had to stop their 

 fishing operations because fuel tanlcers did 

 not reach them on time. The authors have 

 been unable to verify any fuel shortages in 

 Ukraine or Georgia, but it must be assumed 

 that a similar, if not worse, situation 

 prevails. 



The future of the CIS fishing fleets will 

 depend on the ability of the three countries 

 to obtain the necessary fishery resources to 

 maintain the fleets' operations and provide 

 protein to the domestic population. Also 

 important is the export of fishery products to 

 earn hard currencies with which to 

 modernize and replace the fleet, purchase 

 diesel fuel, and support operations in foreign 

 fishing zones. The joint fishery ventures 

 with foreign companies and arrangements to 

 lease, charter, or sell fishery vessels will 

 become an important part of the future 

 activities of the CIS fishery administrators. 

 Russia has a natural advantage because its 

 200-mile exclusive economic zone contains 

 some of the most prolific fishing grounds in 

 the world. Ukrainian high-seas fishing 

 operations will probably have to be reduced 

 along with the fleet. The prospects for the 

 Georgian fleet are bleak and it remains to be 

 seen whether it can continue functioning. 



C. Eastern Europe 



The three major fishing countries in 

 Eastern Europe, Poland, Romania, and 

 Bulgaria, were associated with former the 

 Soviet Union in the so-called 5-partite 

 agreement (the former East Germany was 

 the fifth member) to help each other develop 

 high-seas fisheries. Although the Russian 

 Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, now 

 the Russian Federation, was the leading 

 force behind the expansion into the world's 

 oceans, all three East European countries 



rapidly developed their own fishing fleets. 

 Poland invested in an important and 

 productive network of fishery shipyards 

 which built hundreds of vessels over the past 

 five decades. 



Bulgaria and Romania 



Romania and Bulgaria are both adjacent 

 to the Black Sea and their fisheries have 

 been traditionally based on that body of 

 water. In the 1960s, however, they began 

 to buy high-seas fishing and fishery support 

 vessels from the Soviet Union, Poland and 

 East Germany, and to build an 

 infrastructure for the processing of landed 

 fish. Along with the increase in the fishery 

 vessel tonnage, their marine catch grew 

 rapidly until the late 1970s when coastal 

 countries began to extend their fishery 

 jurisdictions to200-miles. Neither Romanian 

 nor Bulgarian fishery administrators were 

 able to adapt themselves to the new 

 conditions. As a result, their catch began to 

 stagnate and finally decrease rapidly; soon 

 the aging fleet became more of a burden 

 than an asset. 



The outlook for both industries is bleak 

 and the lack of rapid privatization helps to 

 perpetuate the inbred inefficiency of large 

 government-owned corporations. The 

 Bulgarian high-seas fishing company was 

 forced into bankruptcy and will have to be 

 bailed out by government funds to continue 

 operations. The Romania fishing industry 

 is also still government-owned and, as in 

 other the former communist countries, its 

 two principal goals are to fully utilize its 

 fishery fleet and so maintain the full 

 employment of its fishermen and to export 

 fishery products to earn hard currency. 



