396 
The three largest fishing countries in the world were at one time 
Peru, Japan, and the U.S.S.R. (The People’s Republic of China is 
reportedly in the same league, but its Government refuses to publish 
any meaningful catch statistics and, as a result, no one knows precisely 
what its fisheries catch is. FAO estimates it at about 7 million metric 
tons. For purposes of this discussion, we shall leave out the PRC.) 
After the occurrence of “El Nino’?! in the early 1970’s and the 
evident overfishing in the late 1960’s, Peruvian catches decreased 
rapidly. The fishing industry of Peru has been almost entirely depen- 
dent on the anchovy catch since 1955, when Peruvian investors real- 
ized that large stocks of anchovy off its coast could be utilized for 
fishmeal which was in growing demand on the world markets. With 
resultant heavy investment in vessels and reduction plants, the Peru- 
vian catch increased from a few hundred thousand metric tons in 
1955 to over 12 million tons in 1970. 
The unexpected demise of Peru as the largest fishing nation of 
the world leaves Japan as the Soviet Union’s only major competitor 
for the fisheries catch of the world. 
Figure 1 shows graphically the status of the race between the two 
world fishery giants—Japan and the U.S.S.R. They were running 
neck-and-neck until 1973 when a large increase in the catch lifted 
the Soviet statistical curve upward on a collision course with that 
of Japan. It is expected that the Soviet Union will become the world’s 
largest catcher of fish and shellfish sometime before 1980, and possibly 
as early as 1977. 
Unlike the dramatic fluctuations of Peru, or the steady increases 
scored by Japan and the Soviet Union, the U.S. fisheries catch has 
remained stagnant for the past 30 years. 
CATCH IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 
Soviet national statistical data provide a reliable image of the total 
Soviet fisheries catch. They are collected for the years 1913-74 in 
table 2. The first column (total catch) is also graphically presented 
in fig. 2. One can see how the Soviet fisheries catch languished during 
World War I, the Civil War period, and the early years of Soviet 
power. The New Economic Policy (NEP) in the late 1920’s gave 
it a spurt which was quickly spent in the difficult years of Stalin’s 
political terror and purges. After the end of World War II, considera- 
ble progress was made, but it was not until Stalin’s death that the 
attention of the Soviet Government was turned to fisheries (and other 
marine industries) on a priority basis. The foundations for a large 
investment program were laid during Khurshchev’s 7 Year Plan 
(1959-65) !? which began to pay dividends soon. By the early 1960’s, 
the catch curve was beginning to climb toward the 10 million mark 
with a geometric precision, briefly interrupted in 1971 when bad 
weather caused the catch to be smaller than the year before (column 
2 in table 2). 
'1“E] Nino” refers to a natural phenomenon that brings about changes in the Humboldt Current 
flowing off the west coast of South America. An influx of warm water into the current affects the 
usual habitat of plankton and fishery resources. 
12 Average annual investments in the Soviet fishing industry during 1956-60 were about 60 million 
rubles. During 1961-65, they rocketed to 384 million rubles per year—a six-fold increase. 
