1990.^ The fisheries catch has been declining 

 substantially throughout the 1990s, however, 

 and this trend is expected to continue, leading 

 to a decrease in fishery production and 

 exports.^ 



Traditional coastal fishing in the Black 

 Sea continued after World War II, but most 

 private fishery companies were nationalized 

 after a People's Republic was proclaimed in 

 September 1946. Since all the riparian states 

 on the southern Danube River (Bulgaria, 

 Romania, and Yugoslavia) were under 

 communist control, it was only natural that 

 they concluded an agreement on cooperation 

 in the Danube fisheries in January 1958. The 

 Soviet Union, as the paramount political 

 influence in Eastern Europe, joined as a 

 signatory. A year later, the USSR, Bulgaria, 

 and Romania concluded an agreement on the 

 Black Sea fisheries and established a 

 Commission regulating them. 



Having thus established a close 

 relationship in fisheries, Bulgaria watched 

 with considerable interest the Soviet expansion 

 into the world's oceans which began after 

 Stalin's death in 1953. In 1962, the Soviet 

 Union, Poland, and the German Democratic 

 Republic concluded a multilateral agreement 

 on mutual cooperation in the development of 

 high-seas fisheries and all three countries 

 began to construct large stern factory trawlers 

 at a rapid pace, copying the prototype 

 (Fairtry) whose design was purchased by the 

 Soviets from a United Kingdom shipyard. 

 Bulgaria was initially not a member of the so- 

 called "tripartite fisheries agreement," but its 

 officials attended as observers and were 

 impressed by the rapid progress the three 

 countries were making. 



In 1967, Bulgaria purchased its first large 

 trawler of the TROPIK class (2,600 gross 



tons) from an East German shipyard and 

 entered the distant-water fisheries (appendix 

 1). 



Table 1. Bulgaria. Fishing fleet, by 



selected vessel capacity; 1993. 



Capacity 



Number GRT Average GRT 



Under 500 GRT 

 Above 500 GRT 

 TOTAL 



10 

 34 



1,262 

 79.176 

 80,438 



126 

 3.299 

 2,366 



Source: U.S. Navy, Office of Naval 

 Intelligence, 26 July 1993. 



After a meteoric expansion of its high- 

 seas fisheries during the late 1960s and 1970s, 

 which brought the marine catch from zero to 

 167,097 metric tons (t) in 1976, Bulgaria's 

 fishing industry began to stagnate following 

 the extensions to 200 nautical miles of the 

 fishing zones by a majority of coastal nations. 

 Bulgaria's fishing operations had to be 

 curtailed off the United States, Canada, and 

 the European Community; only off Africa and 

 South America were fishing grounds still 

 accessible. The catch stagnated at about 

 100,000 t for the past decade, but declined 

 precipitously in 1990 and 1991 to about half 

 of that amount. 



II. FISHING FLEET 



In July 1993, the Bulgarian fishing fleet 

 numbered 34 vessels with a total gross 

 tonnage of 80,400 tons. (For a complete list 

 of these vessels showing their names, class, 

 gross registered tonnage, and country and year 

 built, see appendix 2). The high-seas fleet 

 represents 98 percent of the Bulgarian fishery 



186 



