A. High-seas Fishing Fleet 



The Polish high-seas fishing fleet 

 numbered 66 units in 1992. Of this total, 53 

 units were fishing vessels (appendix 7). The 

 remaining 13 units were used for transporting 

 harvested fish (appendix 8). A complete list 

 of vessel names, classes, gross registered 

 tonnage (CRT), and country and year of 

 construction is presented in appendices 7 and 

 8." 



Most fishing vessels are large stern 

 factory trawlers having in excess of 2,000 and 

 even 3,000 gross tons (photo 1). The 13 

 various classes of trawlers (appendix 7 lists 

 them alphabetically) were all built in Poland. 

 The country's shipyards rapidly developed the 

 capability to build large high-seas trawlers 

 after Poland entered distant-water fisheries in 

 the late 1950s. Polish shipyards eventually 

 supplied fishery vessels not only to the Soviet 

 Union, but also to Romania, Bulgaria, and 

 even West European countries. 



The high-seas fishery transport and 

 processing vessels were also built in Polish 

 shipyards, except the first one (the 

 Harmattan), which was bought in Germany in 

 1966. Appendix 8 shows that the TERRAL 

 class of refrigerated transports, built in the 

 early 1980s, had a gross tonnage half the size 

 of the ZULAWI class built in the 1970s, but 

 the 2 KOCIEWIE-class baseships, constructed 

 in 1986-87, again had a gross tonnage 

 exceeding 8,800 tons. 



The fishery transport fleet played an 

 important role in the expansion into high-seas 

 fishing grounds from Polish ports as they 

 made possible the delivery of supplies, fuel, 

 water, and the transportation of frozen fish 

 and other fishery products. '° A recent report 

 indicates that their deployment in supporting 



the high-seas fleet has been greatly reduced, 

 but it gives no details of activities in which 

 they are engaged." 



The entire Polish high-seas fishing fleet 

 was constructed in domestic shipyards, and 

 the majority of these vessels are 15-25 years 

 old.'- Only 23 vessels (out of a total of 300) 

 were purchased abroad. Their gross tonnage 

 of 7,170 CRT, is less than 3 percent of the 

 total fishery tonnage built in Poland during 

 the last 35 years (appendix 9). The 

 replacement of aged factory trawlers with 

 new, more efficient vessels is the most 

 important task for the Polish fishing industry 

 if it is to remain economically viable in the 

 1990s.'^ 



B. Fleet Reduction 



The Polish fleet is plagued by 

 overcapacity and obsolescence. Many high- 

 seas vessels are 20-30 years old which limits 

 considerably their future usefulness. By the 

 year 2000, most will have to be retired.'* 



Over the past few years, Poland has been 

 decommissioning vessels fairly steadily. 

 From a report published by the Organization 

 for Economic Cooperation and Development, 

 it is evident how rapid this process has been. 

 From 1990 to 1991, Poland has 

 decommissioned 13 high-seas vessels totalling 

 28,000 CRT." The reflagging of Polish 

 high-seas fishing and fishery support vessels 

 is accelerating. During the past 2 years, a 

 total of 28 vessels were re flagged to 12 

 countries (table 2). The names, gross 

 tonnage, and the year of construction are 

 given in appendix 10. There are many 

 reasons for reflagging, but time does not 

 permit the authors to analyze them at this 

 time.'* 



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