D. Baltic Sea Fleet 



A fleet of about 117 small trawlers, 

 driftnetters, and longliners over 20 meters 

 long operates in the Baltic Sea." In 1991, the 

 Baltic Sea fishermen harvested approximately 

 20 percent of Estonia's total fisheries catch, 

 or about 80,000 tons.'^ The catch is mostly 

 herring, sprat, cod, and salmon. An 

 additional 500 small boats fish along the coast 

 of the Baltic Sea.'^ 



III. SHIPYARDS 



High-seas fishing vessels are not built in 

 Estonia. Some companies build small wooden 

 and fiberglass rowboats, but these are not 

 fishing vessels. Fishing nets are also not 

 manufactured in Estonia; they have generally 

 been imported from Russia. However, there 

 are about 10 small companies that convert the 

 nets into fishing traps/gear. ''' 



rV. HIGH-SEAS FISHING GROUNDS 



The Estonian high-seas fleet operates in 

 the international waters of the Northwest 

 Atlantic, beyond the Canadian 200-mile EEZ. 

 The fishing in this area is governed by the 

 North Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) 

 which allocates the catch quotas to various 

 countries. During NAFO's September 1992 

 Fourteenth Annual Meeting in Dartmouth 

 (Canada), Russia, as the successor state to the 

 Soviet Union, received an allocation of 37 , 300 

 t of various species, mostly redfish (27,000 

 tons). 



In negotiations, following the conclusion 

 of the Annual Meeting, Russia transferred 

 12,000 t of its 1993 ocean perch (redfish) 

 quota to Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, with 

 each country receiving a catch allocation of 

 4,000 tons. At the subsequent annual 

 meeting, the Russian Federation obtained the 

 1994 catch allocation of 32,000 t, but its 

 division among the Batlic countries has not yet 

 been negotiated as of this writing. 



Estonians fished in the Russian 200-mile 

 zone in the Pacific while the country was still 

 a part of the Soviet Union. The Latvian 

 Ministry of Fisheries reported in July 1991'^ 

 that a few Estonian vessels were idling in the 

 Pacific because of a lack of diesel fuel. 

 Currently, 2 Estonian vessels fish in the 

 Pacific Russian 200-mile zone. The 775-GRT 

 trawler Paista is fishing for cod and ocean 

 perch, while the large stern factory trawler 

 Parallaks is deployed as a freezing and 

 transporting vessel in the Russian Far Eastern 

 salmon fishery. Owned by the MAJAK 

 company of Tallinn, both vessels are leased to 

 an unspecified Kamchatka company.'^ 



Other major areas where Estonian high- 

 seas fishermen operate are off the Faroe 

 Islands in the Northeast Atlantic, and off 

 Mauritania and Namibia in the Southeast 

 Atlantic. Recently, their operations were also 

 noted in the Indian Ocean (where a joint 

 venture with Indian interests is being planned) 

 and in the Barents Sea.''' 



Two Estonian vessels belong to the 

 TUNTSELOV (tuna hunter in Russian) class, 

 but they are in effect stern trawlers. The 

 Estonian fishermen do not harvest tuna. 



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