VI. BILATERAL AGREEMENTS & 

 JOINT VENTURES 



Argentina: Bulgaria deployed several large 

 stern factory trawlers on the Patagonian Shelf 

 in the Southwest Atlantic off Argentina along 

 with the much larger Soviet fleet in 1967-77. 

 The Bulgarian fleet was withdrawn, however, 

 after Argentina declared a 200-mile zone in 

 January 1967. Violent encounters between the 

 Argentine Navy and Bulgarian fishermen 

 hastened the withdrawal of the Bulgarian 

 fleet.'* Bulgaria resumed fishing in the region 

 in 1984 after the Falklands conflict forced the 

 Argentine Navy to curtail its fishery 

 enforcement patrols. Most of the Bulgarian 

 fishing during 1984 and 1985 probably took 

 place off the Falklands or off Argentina, but 

 outside its 200-mile zone. The catch was 

 primarily southern blue whiting and squid. 



In 1986, Argentina signed a bilateral 

 fisheries agreement with Bulgaria permitting 

 the Bulgarians access to the Argentine EEZ 

 south of the 46th parallel; the Bulgarians were 

 limited to the use of 6 vessels and a catch 

 allocation of 60,000 t of fish. The Bulgarians 

 never exploited the agreement to its full 

 extent.'' For instance, in 1988 they caught 

 only 42,000 t of fish. 



The Argentines reported major 

 difficulties in their fishery relations with the 

 Bulgarians in the late 1980s, charging 

 specifically that the Bulgarians delayed buying 

 semi-manufactured fishery products from 

 Argentine shore processors as they were 

 required to do under the terms of the 

 agreement. ^° In 1989, when the bilateral 

 fisheries agreement expired, the Argentine 

 Government declined to renew it in response 

 to Bulgarian noncompliance with its terms. ^' 

 The Bulgarians have, however, continued to 



fish in the southwestern Atlantic, but outside 

 Argentina's 200-mile zone. Their 1992 catch 

 in that area is less than 25 percent (9,000 t) of 

 what it used to be only 4 years ago (appendix 

 5). 



Chile: Bulgarian fishermen conducted some 

 fishing operations off Chile during the 1970s 

 and 1980s. This effort was deployed mostly 

 outside Chile's 200-mile fisheries zone; the 

 catch was jack mackerel. 



Falklands: The United Kingdom began to 

 manage fisheries within the 150-mile Falkland 

 Islands interim Conservation Zone (FICA) in 

 1987, and authorized the Falkland Islands 

 government to begin licensing foreign 

 fishermen. Initially, the Bulgarians, following 

 the Soviet lead, did not purchase licenses to 

 fish off the Falklands. After the Bulgarian 

 communist government fell in 1989, 

 however, Bulgarian fishermen began to buy 

 licenses and fish off the Falklands. 



Russia/Former USSR: Bulgaria concluded 

 three bilateral agreements with the former 

 Soviet Union. The most important was the 

 April 23, 1973, agreement on cooperation in 

 the development of high-seas fishing 

 (appendix 7). The two countries agreed to 

 mumally support each other's high-seas fleets 

 by supplying fuel and water, and to transport 

 fishery products with each other's refrigerated 

 transports. It was also agreed to cooperate in 

 fisheries research, and training of fishery 

 specialists, and to coordinate both countries' 

 positions in international fishery organizations. 



The second agreement, concluded in 

 October 1978, gave the Bulgarians the right to 

 fish inside the 200-mile zone of the USSR in 

 the Barents Sea under Soviet catch quotas and 

 regulations. 



194 



