fisheries, but despite the reduction in number there was 

 probably no loss in fishing capabilities because the 

 number of large processing trawlers increased. This shift 

 to larger, more capable trawlers is reflected in figure 12, 

 which shows the numbers and total gross tonnage of the 

 dependent trawlers (primarily SRT's) and the 

 independent trawlers (primarily SRTM's and BMRT's) 

 which appeared off Alaska in 1962-66. 



^s dependent trawlers 

 K« Independent trawler- 



sM! 



Figure 12. -Number and total gross registered tons (GRT) 

 of Soviet trawlers off Alaska, 1962-66. 



FLOUNDER FISHERY 



Intensive fishing for flounders in the Soviet Far East 

 began in 1929-30 in waters off the Soviet coast, and this 

 fishery soon became one of the important commercial 

 fisheries of the Far East (Pertseva-Ostroumova, 1961). 

 As part of its planned expansion, the Far East Fisheries 

 Administration dispatched reconnaissance trawlers to 

 the eastern Bering Sea in 1957-59 to search for new 

 fishing areas. Productive flounder grounds were located, 

 and in March 1959 Soviet trawlers began a fiounder 

 fishery on the Continental Shelf off outer Bristol Bay 

 north of the Alaska Peninsula and south of Nunivak 

 Island (Lipanov and Shestopalov, 1961). This fishery 

 (fig. 13) has been active on the Bristol Bay flats each 

 year since 1959. 



The flounder fishery is a winter operation that 

 generally begins in December or January and lasts until 

 late April. In this report, I consider the year of the 

 fishery to be the year in which the annual fishery ends. 

 Each flounder expedition in 1959-63 involved about 30 

 trawlers supported by factory and refrigerated transport 

 ships. The annual catch in these years was probably 

 between 50.000 and 100,000 tons. In 1964 the flounder 

 fleet was increased to over 40 trawlers with 

 accompanying support ships. Although the effort was 

 increased, the Soviets reported that the total catch was 

 less than in previous years. In 1965 the vessels increased 

 to 50 to 60 trawlers plus support vessels. The 1965 

 increase resulted in part from the shift of vessels from 

 the herring fishery north of the Pribilof Islands which 



fi b_l — I — L 



Figure 13.— Soviet flounder fishing area. 

 21 



