1992, there were 41 such vessels, but by 



1993, their number had decreased to 38 

 units/ 



The fisheries support fleet, however, 

 continued increasing in the early 1980s and 

 almost doubled by 1986, when the Romanian 

 fisheries catch peaked. It has remained at 12 

 large units during the past 7 years, according 

 to Lloyd's Register, even though the fishery 

 landings have decreased by about 55 percent.^ 

 This means that the productivity of the 

 fisheries support fleet must have decreased by 

 approximately 50 percent since 1986. 



In July 1993, the Romanian high-seas 

 fishing fleet register consisted of 50 fishery 

 vessels with a total gross tonnage of 221,000 

 tons. Of this total, 38 units are fishing 

 trawlers (appendix 4), while 12 units are 

 refrigerated transports (appendix 5) supporting 

 the fishing operations. The trawlers have a 

 capacity of between 2,000 and 4,000 GRT 

 each; the 12 fishery support vessels of 

 between 5,000 and 12,000 gross tons. Most 

 of these vessels are over 10-20 years old and 

 were built in the former East Germany, 

 Poland, the former USSR, and Romania.* 

 Despite the advanced age of most of its 

 fishery vessels, it appears that Romania has 

 done little retiring or modernizing of its 

 vessels during the past few years. ^ 



While the Romanian high-seas fleet 

 maintains 50 fishery vessels on the register, in 

 reality only 30 vessels are engaged in distant- 

 water operations. According to a May 1993 

 article by an official of the Romanian 

 Development Agency, Anca Sfectcovici, at 

 the present time, the Romanian high-seas 

 fishing company deploys only 20 trawlers, 10 

 fishery transports, and 2 tankers in high-seas 

 fisheries (table 1).* 



The 20 trawlers in operation are all of the 

 PROMETEI class (also known as the super- 

 ATLANTIK class-photo 1), the most modern 

 and least aged stern factory trawlers Romania 

 possesses. The remaining 18 trawlers are not 

 used for fishing, according to Ms. 

 Sfectcovici 's article, but they have not been 

 de-registered, scrapped, or sold, as far as is 

 known. Where these vessels are physically 

 located is not known either. A French 

 magazine reported in 1990, that these trawlers 

 were "cannibalized" for parts, especially the 

 sonar equipment, to maintain the super- 

 ATLANTIKs in good operational condition. 



PROMETEIs are over 100 meters long, 

 have engines with 3,800 horse power, and a 

 can carry a crew of 85 persons. 



B. Black Sea Fleet 



In July 1993, Romania owned 6 fishing 

 cutters and 1 small research vessel (Delfin) 

 which were deployed in the Black Sea 

 (appendix 6). In addition, Romania owns 

 another 16 smaller (less than 100 GRT) 

 fishing boats which were also deployed in the 

 Black Sea. During the April to October 1993 



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