rV. FISHERY SUPPORT FLEET 



The Latvian fishery support fleet is 

 mostly operated by the Riga Trawler and 

 Refrigeration Fleet company. In 1991, it 

 consisted of 9 baseships and processing 

 vessels, 3 fishery refrigerated transports, and 

 2 exploratory research vessels for a total of 

 14 vessels (appendix 3).^ The Latvian 

 Government has been reducing this fleet and, 

 by 1993, it had only 10 vessels. 



Some high-seas fishery support vessels 

 are most likely also based at Liepaja. The 

 exact number is not known, but various 

 sources estimate it at 4 large (over 4,000 

 GRT) vessels. They are probably I 

 mothership and 3 refrigerated transports. 

 Their names are not available. 



The Lloyds' of London lists in its 

 latest December 1992 statistics only 9 fishery 

 support vessels, with a total gross tonnage of 

 41,100 GRT as being in the Latvian registry. 

 These statistics probably show the reduction 

 of 3 fishery support vessels discussed in the 

 footnotes of appendix 3 and listed in appendix 

 five. Their total tonnage of 34,680 GRT 

 added to the 41,100 GRT comes close to the 

 gross tonnage reported by the U.S. Office of 

 Naval Intelligence (76,900 GRT).- 



V. FLEET REDUCTION 



According to the U.S. Navy, during 

 the past two years Latvia reduced the size of 

 its fishing fleet by 6 vessels and a total of 

 15,330 gross tons (appendix 5). Of this total, 

 4 vessels were reflagged to other countries: a 

 small fishing vessel (Darya Zar) was sold to 

 Iran; a SIBIR-class processing vessel 

 (Plutonas) is now operated by the Lithuanian 



fishing fleet; the fisheries training vessel, 

 Sedov, and a medium trawler were turned 

 over to the Russian Federation*. In addition, 

 two large stern factory trawlers of the 

 MAYAKOVSKII class were decommissioned, 

 but it is not known whether they were 

 scrapped for iron or sold abroad. It is likely, 

 in light of the decrease in the number of 

 vessels between 1991 and 1993, reported by 

 various sources, that additional Latvian 

 vessels have been decommissioned. Full 

 information on this process, however, is not 

 available. 



VI. FISHING GROUNDS 



The Latvian fleet is widely dispersed, 

 primarily on Atlantic grounds. The country's 

 high-seas fishing fleets now operate only in 

 the northern and southern Atlantic; the 

 distant-water fisheries in Antarctica and in the 

 southeastern Pacific have been abandoned 

 because the increasing cost of fuel and the 

 length of the trips made fishing there 

 unprofitable. A small fishery, however, is 

 maintained in the Northwest Pacific and is 

 based in Kamchatka ports. 



The distant waters of the North and 

 South Atlantic are fished by large stern 

 factory trawlers, supported by processing 

 vessels and refrigerated transports. 



Northwest Atlantic: This fishery, regulated 

 by NAFO, has been reduced during the past 

 few years with the Americanization and 

 Canadianization of the fishing grounds by 

 both countries. Latvian fishermen can 

 operate now only in international waters 

 beyond the 200-mile Canadian FEZ where 

 they catch Atlantic ocean perch under a 

 NAFO quota. 



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