416 
nounced that during the current 5 Year Plan (1971-75), ‘“‘expansion 
(is to) continue at the same rate as (during) the last two 5-Year 
Plans.”’ According to Pravada, 900 new fishing vessels and 70 
refrigerated transports and motherships have been added to the fleet 
during the 1971-75 period. 
The estimates of the Office of International Fisheries, National 
Marine Fisheries Service, indicate that 4,450 high seas Soviet fishing 
vessels are now operational. } 
Several factors have contributed to recent modifications in the 
Soviet fishing fleet. The depletion of the fish stocks on traditional 
continental shelf grounds has forced Soviet planners to design vessels 
and equipment for deep sea fishing operations. Industry officials are 
also concerned with increasing the fleet’s efficiency. The Japanese, 
with one-half the high-seas fishing tonnage, still manage to land more 
fish than the Soviet fleet. The heavy investment in fisheries develop- 
ment must therefore be justified by increasing labor productivity. 
To improve efficiency, Soviet designers have incorporated many 
new ideas into the vessel classes earmarked for expansion in the 
1970-80 period. For example, more stern freezer trawlers are being 
built so that fishing and processing can occur simultaneously. 
Processing is being automated as much as possible to lower the 
number of crew needed and speed up production; at the same time, 
maximum engine horsepower increases the number of fishing days 
and decreases the number of days in transit. Larger vessels are being 
constructed which stay at sea longer and carry more cargo. Trawling 
gear is being improved so that it will automatically deploy for max- 
imum catch efficiency. A new type of fishing vessel, the Atlantik- 
III class “‘supertrawler,”’ features many of these recent developments. 
This, the third in the series of Atlantik classes, was designed and 
built in East Germany. 
The continued expansion of the Soviet fishing fleet seems to indicate 
that the industry is not ready to cut back on the total catch as environ- 
mental considerations seem to demand. Rather than limit themselves 
to conserve the resources, Soviet fishermen tend to keep moving 
to the most profitable grounds to maintain catch levels and fulfill 
quotas. Although high-level officials in the Ministry of Fisheries are 
beginning to stress marine and freshwater fish culture as the trend 
of the future in their policy speeches, indications are that the Soviet 
fleet will continue intensively fishing the world’s oceans. 
STATISTICAL REVIEW 
Unlike most other nations, the Soviet Union does not publish 
meaningful statistics on the gross tonnage or the composition of its 
fishery fleet. The last time such data were given in some detail was 
in 1956 when the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the 
United Nations published a statistical review of the world’s fishing 
fleets. This occurred just before the spectacular build-up of the Soviet 
distant water fishing fleet began. As a result, today these data have 
mostly an historical value. They are cited only to give an idea of 
the ‘‘giant steps’ that the U.S.S.R. has made in the world’s seas 
during the last two decades. 
