This amount was equal to one third of the 

 entire 1966 Argentine catch. The Argentine 

 Government, concerned that the large Soviet 

 hake catch would decrease the yields of 

 Argentine fishermen, declared a 200-mile 

 Territorial Sea in 1967 and required foreign 

 fishermen to purchase licenses. Argentine 

 authorities initially implemented licensing 

 regulations that required foreign vessel 

 owners to pay only a nominal licensing fee. 

 Soviet fishermen in 1967 paid the nominal fee 

 ($30) despite the orders of the Soviet 

 Government not to do so. Soviet catches in 

 1967 reached 677,000 t, three times that of 

 the Argentine catch. In response to this 

 massive Soviet fishing effort, the Argentine 

 Government increased licensing fees to $10 

 per net registered ton. Processing vessels had 

 to pay $20 per net registered ton. The 

 Soviets refused to purchase fishing permits at 

 these substantially increased rates and 

 withdrew their vessels on April 1, 1968. The 

 Argentine Government reported a number of 

 enforcement problems during the next few 

 years, but Soviet catches fell sharply. The 

 Argentine Navy seized, and at times fired 

 upon, Soviet vessels. The Soviet catch in the 

 southwestern Atlantic continued at low levels 

 (less than 30,000 t) during the 1970s and 

 early 1980s. The Soviets began expanding 

 fishing operations in the southwestern Atlantic 

 again after the 1982 Falklands conflict, 

 increasing their catch from only 19,000 t in 

 1982 to 77,000 t in 1989. Almost the entire 

 catch until 1986 was off the Falklands, or 

 outside the Argentine 200-mile zone."^ The 

 principal species taken were southern blue 

 whiting, squid, and grenadiers (other than 

 blue grenadiers), depending on the year, but 

 smaller catches of hake, Patagonian toothfish, 

 and other species were also reported. In 

 1986, the Soviets responded favorably to the 

 Argentine proposal for a bilateral fisheries 

 access agreement that allowed Soviet 



fishermen to catch 180,000 t of fish per year 

 off the Patagonian coast, south of 46° 

 South.'** The agreement precluded the Soviets 

 from catching hake or shellfish, the two 

 species which the Argentine fishing fleet 

 targets heavily, and required them to purchase 

 semi-processed Argentine fishery products.^' 

 Beginning in 1987, the Soviets deployed 

 vessels in Argentine waters under the new 

 agreement. The Soviet 1987 catch in 

 Argentine waters was 189,000 tons. Unlike 

 most other distant-water countries, the Soviets 

 did not apply for British/Falkland Island 

 Government licenses to fish off the Falklands. 

 The catch of the former Soviet Union and 

 successor states in the southwestern Atlantic 

 has remained at over 200,000 t through 1991 

 (see Volume IV, Latin America, appendix 

 C4dl). The shift from the Falklands to the 

 Argentine EEZ does not seem to have 

 significantly affected the species taken by the 

 Soviets who continued to take primarily 

 squid, southern blue whiting, and grenadiers. 

 The Soviets have reported much larger squid 

 catches than they ever achieved in their 

 fishery off the Falklands, taking off Argentina 

 a record 134,000 t in 1991. The only 

 important difference in the Soviet catch was a 

 larger catch of blue grenadiers, a species they 

 never harvested in significant quantities off 

 the Falklands. The Soviet-Argentine 1986 

 agreement expired in May 1993 and has not 

 been renewed by the successor states.* 



At least three joint ventures between 

 Argentine and Soviet companies have 

 continued operations since the breakup of the 

 USSR.^' In addition, in 1992, Russia and 

 Argentina signed a letter of intent to create 

 three new joint ventures with the purpose of 

 exploiting krill in the South Atlantic. 



In October 1992, a Russian-Argentine 

 joint venture agreement was signed in 



110 



