98 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



Vol. 28, No. 7 



of the large factory stern trawlers belong to 

 the Maiakovskii - or BMRT -class.) The num- 

 ber of Soviet medium fishing trawlers was the 

 same (22-23) as in April. But the number of 

 refrigerated transports and base ships dou- 

 bled in early May. With the increase in large 

 factory stern trawlers (each has its ownfreez- 

 ing capacity of about 30 tons a day) and sup- 

 port ships, the entire fleet's freezing capacity 

 in early May was close to 1,000 metric tons a 

 day. The fleet was fishing both Pacific ocean 

 perch and some Pacific hake. 



One base ship with 5 medium trawlers was 

 catching hake 20-30 miles off Cape Meares 

 (about 50 miles south of the mouth of the Co- 

 lum.bia River).. After a few days, the weather 

 became bad and the hake fleet joined the ves- 

 sels fishing off Newport, Oregon. The rest of 

 the fleet, including alll5 large stern trawlers, 

 fished for ocean perch 20-30 miles off the 

 Oregon coast between Newport and Florence 

 (or between 44015' N. and 44O50« N.), 



On May 20, a total of 45 Soviet fishing ves- 

 sels was sighted. Half were fishing off New- 

 port, Oregon (between Yaquina Head andHec- 

 eta Head), and the other half off Willapa Har- 

 bor, Washington (about 20-30 miles off the 

 mouth of the Columbia River). Most of the 

 large stern trawlers were concentrated in the 

 Willapa Harbor area. Most of the catches ob- 

 served were Pacific hake. It seems that by 

 then the Soviet fleet found a large concentra- 

 tion of hake near the mouth of the Columbia 

 River and was actively exploiting it. During 

 the last days of May 1966, the Soviet fishing 

 vessels off Pacific Northwest were taking an 

 average of 800-1,000 metric tons of rockfish 

 (mostly Pacific ocean perch) and Pacific hake 

 each day. About 34 Soviet fishing vessels (10 

 large stern factory trawlers and 24 medium 

 trawlers) were operating in the Pacific North- 

 west at the time. By the end of May all of the 

 Soviet fishing vessels moved out of the New- 

 port area and were fishing from 12 to 25 miles 

 offshore in depths of from 40 to 50 fathoms at 

 points between Grace Harbor and Willapa Bay, 

 slightly north of the mouth of the Columbia. 

 Hake catches by the end of May dropped off. 

 The U, S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

 research vessel John N. Cobb, which operated 

 among the Soviet vessels off Willapa Bay from 

 May 27-29, noted that although catches of up 

 to 30,000 pounds of hake per two hours of trawl- 

 ing were observed, average catches were much 

 less. A number of tows with catches of less 

 than 5,000 pounds were observed. 



On June 1, a total of 43 vessels was sight- 

 ed, including 4 stern trawlers, over 30 med- 

 ium trawlers, and 8 refrigerator fish carriers. 

 During the last week of May, 6 large stern 

 trawlers left the area off Pacific Northwest 

 and transferred their operations to Queen 

 Charlotte Sound where about 15 Soviet vessels 

 were sighted early in June. 



Soviet research vessels have been active 

 throughout the month both in conducting in- 

 dependent research as well as in supporting 

 the exploratory activities of the Soviet fish- 

 ing fleets. 



The activity of the Soviet fishery research 

 vessel Adler during April and May is symp- 

 tomatic of the active support the Soviet fish- 

 ing fleets operating in new fishing areas al- 

 ways can count on. On April 9 she was sight- 

 ed off Cascade Head (Oregon) on her way to 

 Vancouver, B.C., where she obtained supplies, 

 fuel and water (April 11-15). By April 20, the 

 Adler was again steaming south to join the So- 

 viet fishing fleet off Coos Bay. During the 

 last week of April and in the first week of May 

 she was actively criss-crossing the offshore 

 waters between 100 and 200 fathoms deep 

 helping the commercial fleet to locate schools 

 offish. It was at this time that she discovered 

 large concentrations of Pacific hake. 



In the last days of May the Adler again 

 came to Vancouver, to resupply. While at 

 Vancouver, she was found to have fishing gear 

 aboard --a fact that prompted Canadian fish- 

 ery officials to resurrect a law which pro- 

 hibits any foreign vessel from entering Cana- 

 dian territorial waters if it has fishing gear 

 aboard, even though it may not engage in ac- 

 tual fishing. 



On June 1, the research vessel Adler was 

 sighted conducting research south of Amphi- 

 trite Point (Vancouver Island) not far from 

 the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 



IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 

 AND CARIBBEAN: 



Norwegian : On May 23, 1 of the 4 Nor- 

 wegian shark -catching vessels which had been 

 fishing off eastern and southeastern U. S. At- 

 lantic coasts since June 1965 entered Pensa- 

 cola, Florida, for supplies. The captain indi- 

 cated this was probably his last trip to the 

 Gulf; his catch was about 200 metric tons of 

 "brown sharks." 



