2. Postulated Fishing Vessel Characteristics 



For the most part, foreign fishing vessels subject to Public 

 Law 94-265 are large, seagoing vessels capable of overseas transit to 

 the fishing grounds and able to store and process enough tonnage of 

 fish to make this kind of operation economic. Both individual seagoing 

 trawlers and very large factory ships accompanied by "capture fleets" 

 are employed. The only notable exceptions to this general situation 

 occur in the Gulf of Mexico and the extreme South Atlantic areas in 

 which smaller vessels from Mexico and Cuba can economically be employed 

 and in Alaskan and North Pacific waters where small- to moderate-sized 

 Canadian vessels can economically fish close-in U.S. waters. However, 

 available information suggests that these exceptions account for a rel- 

 atively small part of the problem to which Public Law 94-265 is addressed. 

 For this survey, therefore, we have selected as the "design target" of 



the enforcement system the typical transoceanic fishing vessel with the 



* 

 postulated characteristics listed below: 



• 100 ft or longer, steel hull 



• Diesel powered, 1000 hp or larger 



2 



• Microwave radar cross section of 500 ra or larger 



• Radio and radar equipped 



• Visually distinctive gear deployed during fishing. 



While no effort was expended to verify these characteristics, 

 discussion with USCG personnel indicate that they are representative. 

 In contrast to these characteristics, most U.S. fishing vessels that 

 fish U.S. waters are significantly smaller. For example, a study some 

 years ago by the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range^ showed that with the 



By "design target" is meant a vessel that is representative of the 

 minimum detectability or identifying characteristics that must be 

 controlled by the enforcement system. 



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