B. Fleet Reduction 



The Estonian fishing fleet has been 

 reduced by 13 vessels during the past 2 years 

 (appendix 2). Seven vessels, owned by the 

 state-owned OOKEAN company, were sold to 

 Indian and Pakistani companies, probably to 

 be scrapped for iron. (Estonia itself does not 

 have a vessel-scrapping facility.) Most of the 

 vessels sold for scrap were 20 years old and 

 older. The other six vessels were reflagged, 

 mostly to former Soviet states. A large 

 fishery training vessel, the Kruzenshtern, was 

 reportedly returned to Russian operative 

 control.* The total gross tonnage of sold 

 (scrapped) and reflagged vessels amounts to 

 almost 38,000 GRT, approximately 17 

 percent of the Estonian high-seas fleet 

 tonnage. The stern factory trawler Korall, 

 owned by the OOKEAN company, is no 

 longer engaged in high-seas fishery 

 operations. It is moored in Tallinn and serves 

 as a training vessel for students of the local 

 technical-vocational fishery school.* 



This significant reduction of the Estonian 

 distant-water fleet is not yet completed. In 

 August 1993, four additional Estonian vessels 

 were marked for sale, including 3 large stern 

 factory trawlers. There has been buyer 

 interest, but the contracts have not yet been 

 signed. A small Baltic fishing vessel, the 

 Kirre, is also on the block.'" If and when 

 these units are sold, another 8,000 gross tons 

 of capacity will be eliminated from the 

 Estonian high-seas fleet. 



C. Types of High-seas Vessels 



Estonia's distant-water fleet has 17 

 different classes of fishing and fishery support 

 vessels. They are identified in appendices 3 

 and 4. 



Most fishing vessels have between 2,000 and 

 3,000 gross tons and are owned by the 

 OOKEAN high-seas fishing company in 

 Tallinn. The medium-sized side and stern 

 trawlers are mostly owned by former 

 cooperatives (kolkhozes) that have been 

 privatized. 



The largest type in the Estonian fishing 

 fleet is the giant floating cannery and fish- 

 processing stern factory trawler of the 

 MOONZUND class (appendix 2). With a 

 gross tonnage of 7,700 tons and two engines 

 (each having 31,600 horsepower), this vessel 

 not only harvests fish itself, but can also 

 freeze the catch and produce up to 26,000 

 standard cans a day (appendix 5). A 

 relatively modern vessel, the MOONZUND 

 class was built in the late 1980s in the 

 VOLKSWERFT Shipyard in Stralsund, 

 located in the former German Democratic 

 Republic. Also known as the ATLANTIK- 

 488 class, this freezer trawler can flsh with 

 both bottom and mid-water trawls and can 

 operate on its own, or with a fisheries 

 "expedition" in the proverbial seven seas of 

 the world. Fish (either whole or processed) 

 is frozen; bycatch and offal are reduced to 

 fishmeal and fish oils. Medicinal fish oils are 

 also produced. The finished products can be 

 transferred at sea, or brought into port by the 

 vessel itself. 



Practically all Estonian fishing vessels 

 were built in Soviet or East German 

 shipyards. An exception ares the two Polish- 

 built fish-processing baseships. These are 

 larger (13,500 GRT) and longer vessels than 

 the MOONZUND class, but they are much 

 older (almost 30 years old) and less efficient. 

 They also have no canning facilities. Built in 

 Poland's Gdansk Shipyard, they are known as 

 the B-64 or PIONERSK-class vessels. 



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