437 
The costs of educating a student in the Soviet higher fisheries in- 
stitutes appear to vary more widely. With 2,500 students (1,000 full- 
time), the Murmansk Higher Marine Engineering Institute had, in 
1966, a budget of over $10 million, or about $4,000 per student, 
including correspondence students. On the other hand, the Astrakhan 
Higher Technical Fisheries Institute had 4,800 students (1,700 full- 
time) and yet had an estimated budget of only about $2 million. 
The explanation for this variation is that the Murmansk Institute trains 
navigators, radio operators, etc. These fields require expensive elec- 
tronic equipment and intense technical supervision. The Astrakhan 
Institute concentrates on less expensive fields of training such as en- 
gine mechanics and gear handling. 
In 1973, the Soviet Fisheries Ministry budgeted a reported 48 mil- 
lion rubles for its fishery schools, or a little less than 5 percent 
of its entire budgetary allocations. The average cost per fisheries stu- 
dent would thus amount to about 800 rubles (U.S. $1,050) per year. 
FISHERIES TRAINING FLEET 
Introduction. 
The Soviet Union’s fisheries expanded into a major industry during 
the 1950’s and 1960’s. Along with this expansion, the need for 
qualified fishermen, fleet officers, and seamen increased rapidly. The 
lure of the sea and the opportunity to see foreign lands attracted 
many young recruits. However, the newer, larger, and more complex 
fishery vessels demanded greater expertise in many technical fields. 
The growth of the Soviet fishing fleet and its continued moderniza- 
tion were not reflected in Soviet fisheries training. In the 1950’s, 
the Soviet Union had only two fishery training vessels. A rather primi- 
tive program of education was provided either in classrooms on the 
secondary or higher levels, or at sea with various correspondence 
courses in such marine specialties as navigation, engine mechanics, 
radio communications, gear technology, and safety at sea. As a result, 
even the honor graduates from these courses often lacked the practical 
experience necessary to make efficient high-sea navigators, fishermen, 
and processors. Indeed, some graduates were simply not cut out for 
sea-going life, though they had mastered the academics of the field 
in fishery schools ashore. The results were stagnant productivity at 
sea, inefficient use of funds earmarked for fisheries training, and 
dissatisfaction of the more experienced, though less-educated, fisher- 
men with their younger, more educated but less proficient, comrades. 
The Ministry of Fisheries responded by providing practical, on- 
board training to supplement the classroom studies. By grading each 
student’s performance at sea as well as in the classroom, a more 
accurate ranking of the students and more experienced graduates 
could be obtained. Thus, in the early 1960’s the Ministry began to 
organize a training fleet for each of the five major fishery administra- 
tions: Sevryba, Zapryba, Azcherryba, Kaspryba, and Dal’ryba. 7° 
The first step in establishing a fishery training fleet was to requisition 
suitable vessels. During a period when the Soviets had assigned highest 
29 The Soviet fishery administrations are divided geographically. Four are in European Russia, one 
is in the Far East. Their names are a composite of the geographic location and the suffix ‘‘ryba”™ 
which means fish in Russian. Zapryba for instance is the Zapadnaia Fisheries Administration, located 
in western (European) Russia. On the other hand, the Dalryba is located in the Soviet Far East. 
