travel expenses, operational expenses, etc. 

 The Committee receives these funds from 

 various regional fishery administrations (now 

 share-holding "companies") who sell fishery 

 products abroad. This includes the joint 

 venture company, SOVRYBFLOT. 



The administrative needs of fishery 

 representatives and attaches are handled by 

 the Division of International Affairs of the 

 Committee, headed by Vadim NIKOLAEV. 

 Each of the 4 geographic sections of the 

 Division handles the fishery offices located in 

 its region. The staff of the Division is limted 

 and the servicing of that many officers abroad 

 often represents an unbearable administrative 

 burden for the able and dedicated officials of 

 the Division. One must also consider that the 

 Division handles foreign visitors to the 

 Committee through its efficiently run Protocol 

 Section. 



The tour of duty of a fishery 

 representative is 4 years, but can be extended 

 or shortened, depending on the circumstances. 

 When they return to Russia, the 

 representatives and attaches are again 

 absorbed into the Committee on Fisheries, or 

 some of its regional administrations. 



VI. BILATERALS & JOUST VENTURES 



After the breakup of the USSR, the 

 Committee on Fisheries of the Russian 

 Federation assumed the rights and 

 responsibilities of the former Soviet Union for 

 40 of the existing 59 bilateral 

 intergovernmental agreements and for 1 1 of 

 the 14 international organizations to which the 

 former USSR belonged. Russia is also 

 keeping open 30 of the 32 fishery 

 representations around the world. ^■'' 



Former Russian fishery collectives 

 (kolkhozes), as well as large companies 

 looking abroad for business opportunities, 

 have been making deals and establishing joint 

 ventures with foreign companies to make up 

 for the dwindling fishery resources at home, 

 to gain access to foreign grounds and port 

 facilities, to receive capital, fuel and other 

 supplies, and to earn foreign currencies. The 

 Russian kolkhoz leadership tends to lack 

 commercial experience, and their foreign 

 ventures often meet with failure. 



A. LATIN AMERICA 



Argentina: In 1986, Argentina signed a 

 fisheries framework agreement with the 

 Soviet Union, which remained in force until 

 May 1993. The agreement granted the 

 Soviets the right to fish the Argentine EEZ 

 south of the 46th parallel where they were 

 allowed to harvest any commercial species 

 except hake. In the early years of the 

 agreement, the Soviets were limited to 18 

 vessels and 180,000 t per year, and the 

 Argentine Government was paid 3 percent of 

 the value of the fish exported. In 1990, the 

 limits decreased to 15 vessels and 150,000 t, 

 and the fee was raised to 12 percent of the 

 value of fish landed. In 1991, the Soviet 

 allocation dropped further to 10 vessels and 

 100,000 f, and in 1992, it decreased to 5 

 vessels and 50,000 tons.*^ 



The Soviets first entered the southwestern 

 Atlantic in 1961, deploying research vessels 

 to assess stocks on the virtually untouched 

 Patagonian Shelf. Based on favorable reports 

 from these research cruises, the Soviets 

 decided to deploy a substantial commercial 

 fleet. Soviet vessels first appeared in 

 significant numbers off Argentina during 

 1966. In their first year of fishing in the 

 area, the Soviet fleet caught 73,000 t of fish. 



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