Latvian fishery tonnage is not only the 

 largest among the Baltic states, it is also the 

 most disproportionate when related to the 

 population. Every fifth Latvian "owns" a 

 gross high-seas fishery ton, but only every 

 eighth Lithuanian does. One possible 

 explanation for this imbalance is the fact that 

 the Soviet Western Fisheries Administration, 

 which was ordering the vessels and paying 

 for them, was located in Riga, Latvia. 



After independence was granted to the 

 Baltic states by the Russian Federation in 

 1991, there were no disputes - as far as is 

 known - about the ownership of fishery 

 vessels. Whatever vessels were in Baltic 

 ports or were "owned" by the Estonian, 

 Latvian, and Lithuanian fishery 

 administrations, became the property of the 

 newly independent states which lost no time 

 in re-registering these vessels under their 

 own registry. The few exceptions confirm 

 the rule.* 



Cognizant of the excessive capacity of 

 their fishery fleets, all three Baltic countries 

 have begun to reduce the number of vessels 

 (appendix 3). Estonia leads the way in 

 decommissioning 35,000 gross registered 

 tons, or almost 15 percent of its total 

 tonnage. Lithuania reduced its large fleet by 

 only 5 percent, while Latvia (with the 

 largest Baltic fleet) was able to reduce its 

 tonnage by barely 3 percent in the last two 

 years. ^ The data for Estonia are the most 

 complete and reliable because of the 

 outstanding cooperation of the U.S. 

 Embassy in Tallinn which repeatedly 

 checked the data available in Estonia; it is 

 not impossible that Latvia and Lithuania 

 have also removed from their registries 

 additional vessels, and the authors hope that 

 local readers will be kind enough to notify 

 them of new changes in the fleet 



complement. Of special interest is the fact 

 that the decommissioned 6 percent of the 

 Baltic fishery fleets was mostly sold for 

 scrap and thus removed from the over- 

 capitalized high-seas fleets. 



The average age of the Baltic fleets is 

 only 14 years; the vessels were built more 

 recently than those in practically all other 

 East European countries, including Russia. 

 Since the reduction program will presumably 

 eliminate the oldest vessels, it is hoped that 

 the age of the Baltic fleet will decrease even 

 further. 



C. Outlook for the Baltics 



Another important factor governing the 

 future efficiency and profitability of the 

 Baltic fleets are the privatization programs. 

 As long as the fleets continue to be owned 

 by the governments (and therefore likely to 

 receive subsidies to cover their deficits), the 

 Baltic high-seas fisheries will not operate at 

 the maximum economic efficiency. In late 

 1992, Lithuania's privatization programs 

 were the most advanced among the 3 Baltic 

 countries. Its government expected 75 

 percent of state-owned assets to be 

 privatized by the end of the year, while in 

 Estonia only 15 percent of sdch assets were 

 privatized. In Latvia, the program was 

 barely in the policy planning stage. A 

 major difficulty is the giant size of the Baltic 

 state-owned fishing companies; no local or 

 even foreign owner has the necessary funds 

 to buy them out. The Baltic fishery 

 managers have already divested themselves 

 of many non-fishing enterprises which were 

 accumulated over the years when investment 

 funds were readily available. In addition to 

 divestitures, a tendency is noted towards 

 breaking up large organizations into smaller 

 parts. This was especially pronounced 



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