350 



300 



250 



200 



150 



100 



Distant-water fisheries have 

 fared somewhat better. In 1992, 

 the Polish high-seas fishermen 

 caught 359,000 t, only 18 percent 

 less than the 440,000 t harvested 

 in 1975. During those 17 years, 

 the high-seas catch fluctuated 

 considerably from a peak of over 

 500,000 in 1987 to a low of 

 306,000 in 1991. Its percentage 

 of the total catch, however, 

 remained a constant 60 to 70 

 percent. 



The catch by FAO statistical 

 fishing areas fluctuated much 

 more, both in quantity and in 

 geographic location (figure 3). In 

 1980, for instance, the Polish 

 high-seas fleet fished in ten major distant- 

 water fishing areas; by 1992, the Poles 

 conducted substantial operations in only three 

 such areas. In 1980, the most important 

 fishing grounds were in the South Atlantic, 

 off the coasts of Africa and South America. 

 By 1992, those grounds were insignificant 

 compared to the large Pacific haul off 

 Russia's 200-mile zone. 



1,000 Metric tons 



Figure 3. Poland. Distant-water fisheries catch, by region, 

 1985-92. 



1975-80, 



Argentine-British war made any fisheries 

 enforcement difficult. In the last few years, 

 however, the British have introduced a strict 

 fisheries management regime to prevent 

 overfishing and, as a result, have been 

 issuing fewer and fewer licenses to foreign 

 vessels. Consequently, the southwestern 

 Atlantic fisheries now yield to Polish 

 fishermen only about a tenth of what they 



By far the largest fishery in 

 1992 was in the Northwest Pacific 

 (FAO statistical area 61), where 

 298,000 t of Alaska pollock was 

 landed in the international waters 

 of the Sea of Okhotsk. The 

 second most important fishing area 

 in 1992 was the southwestern 

 Atlantic fishing ground adjacent to 

 the Falkland Islands (FAO 

 statistical area 41). A total of 

 43,000 t was caught there, mostly 

 squid (26,230 tons). This part of 

 the Atlantic used to be the prime 

 Polish harvesting ground in the 

 late 1980s (figure 4) when the 



1,000 Metric tons 





Figure 4. Poland. Fisheries catch in the soutliwest Atlantic. 1975-91. 



219 



