the total United States landings in 1966. The current 

 5-year plan for the Far East envisions an annual catch of 

 over 4 million tons by 1970. 



Soviet Far East fishing fleets first appeared off Alaska 

 in 1959, foUowing exploratory work in the Bering Sea in 

 the pieceding 2 years (Lipanov and Shestopalov, 1961). 

 During the first few years, fishing was limited to the 

 eastern Bering Sea, but in 1962 it expanded into the 

 Gulf of Alaska and in 1963 along the Aleutian Islands. 

 By the end of 1963, the Soviet tleets were engaged in 

 year-round operations along much of Alaska's vast 

 coastline. As many as 100 vessels were involved at one 

 time. Between 1959 and 1966 over 800 individual Soviet 

 fishing and associated support vessels operated off 

 Alaska. 



Soviet fishing activities off Alaska (fig. 11) include 

 trawling for groundfish and shrimp, tangle net fishing for 

 king crab, and whaling. Vessels in these fisheries include 

 three types of side trawlers (125-178 feet long),'' one 

 type (primarily) of factory trawler (278 feet long),' 



whale killer vessels (131-209 feet long), factory and base 

 ships, refrigerated transports, cargo ships, tankers, and 

 tugs. Most of the vessels fishing off Alaska are from 

 three of the Far East provinces— Primorskiy Kray, 

 Sakhalin, and Kamchatka; the major home ports are 

 Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Nevelsk, Khomlsk, 

 Petropavlovsk, and Ust-Kamchatsk. 



The type of trawler used most often in the Soviet Far 

 East fisheries is the SRT side trawler. Most of these 

 vessels lack refrigeration or other processing facilities, 

 and they are therefore dependent upon direct support 

 by processing ships. The SRT's are thus used in fleets 

 centered around support ships. In an attempt to improve 

 the capabilities of their distant-water fleets, the Soviet 

 Union began installing refrigeration equipment in some 

 of the SRT's in the early 1960's. 



The Soviet Far East fleets have in recent years been 

 receiving an increasing number of SRTM freezer trawlers 

 and BMRT factory trawlers. These trawlers are larger 

 vessels capable of processing their own catches and of 



Figure 1 1 .—Soviet fishing areas off Alaska. 



SRTSredniy Rybolovnyy Trauler. or medium fishing 

 trawler, 265 gross tons and 125 feet long. 



SP:J H—Sredniy Rybolovnyy Trauler Refrizheratornyy. or 

 refrigerated medium fishing trawler, 505 gross tons and 167 feet 

 long. 



SBJM—Sredniy Rybolovnyy Trauler Morozilnyy. or freezing 

 medium fishing trawler, 700 gross tons and 178 feet long. 



BMRT-Bo/j/io.v Morozilnyy Rybolovnyy Trauler, or large 

 freezer fishing trawler (commonly called factory trawler), 3,170 

 gross tons and 278 feet long. 



operating for long periods as independent units. The 

 current Soviet program apparently envisions eventual 

 replacement of the small dependent trawlers by the 

 larger, more productive independent trawlers. This 

 change of emphasis has become evident in the 

 composition of the trawler fleets off Alaska in recent 

 years. 



The number of Soviet trawlers engaged in fisheries off 

 Alaska dropped from 399 in 1965 to 351 in 1966. This 

 was the first such decline in the history of these 



20 



