In the Convention area of the 

 International Commission for the Southeast 

 Atlantic Fisheries (ICSEAF), the Romanians 

 began fishing in 1970 with 3 stern factory 

 trawlers and continued this fishery with 4 

 trawlers in 1971.'" The catch per unit of 

 effort was so low (1.4 tons per hour of 

 towing) that they discontinued this fishery for 

 four years (1972-1975) and switched their 

 operations elsewhere where the harvesting 

 success was better. It was only in 1976 that 

 the Romanian fishermen returned to 

 southeastern Atlantic fisheries (FAO statistical 

 area 47). The move was the 

 result of the United States' — off 

 whose coasts, on Georges Bank, 

 they developed an active fishery — 

 extension of its fisheries 

 jurisdiction to 200 miles. 



About 15-20 stern factory 

 trawlers were deployed in the 

 ICSEAF area in the early 1980s. 

 Most fished off Namibia (which 

 was then known as Southwest 

 Africa), but some also operated 

 off Angola. Poor catch results in 

 1976 and 1977 (1.6 t per hour of 

 towing) soon improved as the 

 Romanian fishermen became more 

 experienced; by the mid-1980s the Hgure i. r 

 hourly catch exceeded 4 metric quantity: 1975-92. 

 tons. 



reduced to only 12,600 tons in 1990, and 

 completely terminated in 1991 (figure 2).'^ 



In 1991, Romanian fishermen landed 

 83,200 t of fish and shellfish from their 

 distant-water operations in the North Atlantic 

 off West Africa (Mauritania). This 

 represented an increase of 10,000 t over the 

 1990 catch, despite the fact that the fishery 

 off Southwest Africa (Namibia) had ceased 

 that year. In 1992, however, the catch 

 decreased by almost a third to 57,100 t, 

 which represented only 30 percent of the 1986 



1 ,000 Metric tons 



Convention Areas 

 niCSEAF 



omania. Fishery catch in the ICSEAl' and CECAI* convention areas, by 



The grounds off Namibia and the 

 Republic of South Africa used to be 

 Romania's second largest fishery. This 

 fishery peaked in 1986 with a catch of 

 109,000 t; by 1989 it was only a half of that 

 amount. The overfishing of South African 

 pilchard off South Africa caused the ICSEAF 

 to reduce the catch quotas there. The 

 Romanian fishery was heavily affected. 



catch, Romania's best year (appendix 7). li 

 1991 and 1992, the fisheries off the West 

 African coast were the last Romanian distant- 

 water fishery left. 



Despite these vicissitudes, high-seas 

 fisheries contributed more than two-thirds of 

 the total Romanian fisheries catch during the 

 past three decades. This large percentage 

 remained constant because the Romanian 

 inland fisheries remained stagnant through 



261 



