4 more TROPIKs, in the next two years, and 

 3 MAYAKOVSKII-class large stern factory 

 trawlers in 1967. 



The next year, the Bulgarians again shopped 

 in the former German Democratic Republic 

 where they ordered 3 modern ATLANTIK- 

 class vessels from the Stralsund shipyard 

 (which began to build this type of vessel 

 serially in the 1960s). The vessels impressed 

 the Bulgarians — reportedly they were more 

 advanced than the Soviet-built 

 MAYAKOVSKIIs -- and, during the next 3 

 years, another 8 ATLANTIKs were bought. 

 By the end of 1971, Bulgaria's high-seas 

 trawler fleet numbered 20 Soviet and East 

 German-built units. 



During the same period, the Bulgarian 

 Government also purchased 6 giant (6,000 

 GRT), SIBIR-class baseships from the Soviet 

 Union to support the far-flung distant-water 

 operations of its factory trawlers. 



The final phase of the Bulgarian high-seas 

 fleet expansion took place in 1974-75, when 

 Bulgaria purchased another 9 stern factory 

 trawlers from Polish shipyards. This was an 

 ill-timed move as, a year later, most of the 

 world's coastal countries, including several off 

 whose coasts Bulgarians fished heavily 

 (Canada, the United States, the European 

 Community countries) extended their fishery 

 jurisdictions to 200 nautical miles. An 

 additional negative impact was caused by the 

 policies of the Bulgarian communists under 

 the leadership of General Secretary, Todor 

 Zhivkov. Instead of allowing the profits of 

 the Bulgarian high-seas fisheries to be 

 reinvested in the modernization and renovation 

 of the high-seas fleet, they skimmed the 

 accumulated funds and used them for other 

 purposes. A complete account of this trend, 

 which became critical in 1988, has not yet 



been fully disclosed, but it is known that the 

 Bulgarian high-seas fishing company, 

 OKEANSKI RIBOLOV, had to borrow 

 money to make repairs on its vessels and was 

 charged usurious interest rates on these 

 loans.'' 



In July 1993, the 24- vessel fleet of 

 OKEANSKI RIBOLOV, which conducts all of 

 Bulgaria's high-seas fishing operations, 

 consisted of 17 trawlers and 7 support vessels 

 (appendix 2). This fleet is composed of: 6 

 ATLANTIK class large stern factory trawlers 

 built in the former East Germany (about 20 

 years old); 9 KALMAR class trawlers built in 

 Poland (about 16 years old-photo 1); 1 

 PULKOVSKII MERIDIAN class trawler built 

 in the former Soviet Union (about 4 years 

 old); 5 SIBIR class refrigerated transport 

 vessels (all are over 20 years old); and 2 

 converted MAYAKOVSKII class trawlers 

 which now serve as transport and support 

 vessels.^ The utilization of the 



ZHELEZNYAKOV-class vessel is unknown; 

 judging from its size, it may be used for 

 exploratory fishing. 



The ATLANTIK, KALMAR, and 

 PULKOVSKII MERIDIAN-class stern factory 

 trawlers are equipped to fish for both 

 demersal and pelagic fish by using bottom or 

 mid- water trawls. They can process between 

 70 and 120 tons of landed fish each 24 hours. 

 The catch is sorted, gutted and headed, 

 filleted, frozen, and packed. The final 

 product of whole or processed frozen fish 

 blocks is packed in cartons (two or three 

 blocks per carton). The offal is reduced to 

 fishmeal." 



B. Fleet Reduction 



The Bulgarian Government purchased a 

 total of 36 high-seas vessels during the 1964- 



