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Mothership-class vessels are designed to work not only with their 
own small ‘‘catcher boats,’’ but also with a flotilla of other fishing 
vessels. The mothership can carry from 6-14 small catcher boats which 
are lowered to the sea once the fishing grounds are reached. The 
ship’s factory facilities are equipped for canning the catch and produc- 
ing fishmeal and oil. The best known and most advertised Soviet 
mothership, though by no means the most efficient, is the recently 
constructed Vostok. 
A typical fish carrying and processing vessel is designed to receive, 
freeze, and transport processed or whole fish caught by trawlers 
operating on grounds far from Soviet ports. Some classes of these 
vessels are equipped to produce fishmeal, or engage in specialized 
fisheries, but most of them are not used for these types of operations. 
Fish handling is often completely mechanized and automatically con- 
trolled. Huge derricks lift the catch from the trawlers at sea and 
transfer it to elevators situated in the hold of the refrigerated carrier. 
Conveyor belts inside the hold speed up handling and sorting. Automa- 
tion of fish handling systems has been an important improvement 
on the more recent classes of transport and processing vessels. 
Soviet large stern trawlers are a wide and varied group of vessels 
built in a number of countries such as Poland, the German Democratic 
Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Ger- 
many, and France. The first to enter the Soviet fleet were the large 
stern factory trawlers (BMRT’s). The Soviets bought the blueprint 
from a U.K. shipyard, which constructed the first stern factory trawler 
(the Fairtry), and ordered 24 Pushkin-class stern trawlers from Kiel 
shipyards in West Germany in the mid-1950’s. The vessels were copied 
and improved by the Soviet, Polish, and East German shipyards which 
soon began to mass-produce them. Today these three countries build 
aS many as seven stern freezer and factory trawlers per month (of 
which Poland produces two, East Germany two, and the Soviet Union, 
three). These vessels are completely integrated fishing and processing 
units. After the catch is landed, it is either canned, frozen, or reduced 
into fishmeal, all aboard the same vessel. The large stern factory 
and freezer trawlers have become the backbone of the Soviet high 
seas fleet. More than 740 were operational by October 1, 1975. 
During the immediate post-World War II years, small side trawlers 
made up the major part of the Soviet fishing fleet. Certain classes 
of these vessels had refrigerated holds or were equipped to store 
the catch either wet or salted and to produce seimprocessed fishmeal 
and fish oil. Many of these small, standard trawlers, although no 
longer typical, are still in use today, but they are rapidly being 
replaced by more modern and larger vessels. 
Other principal trawler types include medium stern and side 
trawlers, some with refrigeration and some with freezer capacity. Until 
1967, all Soviet medium trawlers had been side trawlers. The first 
medium stern trawler in the Soviet fleet was completed in 1967. 
This vessel served as the prototype for a new series of trawlers in- 
tended for operation in the temperate and tropical zones of the Atlan- 
tic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. They are able to operate independently 
or as part of a flotilla, and to freeze and pack their own catch. 
There are no indications that the U.S.S.R. intends to slow the expan- 
sion of its fishing fleet. In fact, Soviet Fisheries Minister Ishkov an- 
