407 
Soviet Caribbean catches (Western Central Atlantic) are negligible. 
Most of the catch comes from the Campeche Banks off Mexico’s 
Yucatan Peninsula. 
The most rapid increase in Soviet catches during 1964-73 occurred 
in the Central Eastern Atlantic off the coast of West Africa. In 1964, 
this region contributed less than 3 percent of the total catch; by 
1973, more than 11 percent of the Soviet fisheries catch, approaching 
1 million tons, came from West African waters. Recent extensions 
of fisheries limits by several West African states will put a dent in 
the Soviet capability to exploit these waters. The Soviet Fisheries 
Ministry is fighting this trend by organizing joint ventures with local 
companies and extending fisheries assistance to West African govern- 
ments. 
The Soviet fishing in the Southwest Atlantic, off the coast of South 
America, has an interesting history. After having secured a fisheries 
base in Cuba in 1962 and having built a large modern fishing port 
there (1963-65), the Soviet fishing fleet could, logistically speaking, 
expand into the virgin waters of the Patagonian Shelf where large, 
unexploited fishery resources were available. Losing no time, the 
Soviets began to fish off Argentina in the summer of 1966 and caught 
73,000 tons of fish, mainly Patagonian hake (table 3). The following 
year, an armada of Soviet fishery vessels appeared off Argentina.’ 
The intense fishing operations so provoked the Argentine Government 
that it proclaimed the extension of its fisheries zone out to 200 nauti- 
cal miles. , 
The Soviet fleet, although officially advised of the new decress, 
delayed in leaving the Argentine-claimed waters. Finally, in June 1968, 
two large Soviet stern factory trawlers were ordered by an Argentine 
naval vessel to stop for boarding and seizure, but did not heed Argen- 
tine orders. They were shot at; after one was hit amidships, both 
surrendered and were escorted into an Argentine port. Following 
weeks of negotiations, the two trawlers were released, but the Soviet 
fleet had to leave the Patagonian Shelf. Their catch there, which 
in 1967 amounted to 677,000 metric tons, was reduced to negligible 
proportions the following year. 
The Soviet fleets moved northward off Uruguay and when that 
country declared a 200-mile fisheries zone, continued their operations 
off Brazil, where they caught 420,000 tons of fish in 1970 (fig. 6). 
According to Argentine press reports (which were not always reliable when discussing Soviet fish- 
ing activities), the total number of Soviet fishery vessels off Argentina and Uruguay in 1966 exceeded 
200 
