The Soviet Union’s fishing industry has come of age. Far-flung fishing and whaling fleets have penetrated virtually every fishing ground known to the maritime nations of the world, and they have, in addition, struck off on their own into previously unfished waters to obtain the catches needed to contribute to the sustenance of the inhabitants of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet fishing fleet poses a two-pronged problem for the Western world: one prong is an economic one, the other strategic. Increased catches of fish by the wide-ranging fishing vessels of the fleet cannot help but bring about a reduction in imports, with all the economic implications such a reduction can have on exporter nations. Too, the photographic evidence of something other than fishing activity on the part of such individual units as Vega and the attempt on the part of yet another unit of the fishing fleet to interfere in our own submarine testing program on the high seas are examples of overt challenge to our defenses which have been discussed in our own press. That such activities are to continue is of little doubt, for stories which appear in the Russian language press continue to increase the evidence that fishing vessels are becoming ever more plentiful.
In brief, the preoccupation with economic matters inherent in the role of a fishing vessel engaged in its traditional role is no longer of overriding concern to Soviet planners, despite the fact that, in recent years, total tonnages of fish caught have fallen off sharply. Yet, despite the decline in fish taken, and thanks to an invaluable assist from non-bloc building yards, from the North Sea to the Pacific Ocean, the expansion of the Soviet fishing fleet on the high seas has been unprecedentedly rapid, enabling the Soviet Union to pose the two-pronged problem cited.
The Economic Problem
Because of the fact that a considerable amount of fishing activity takes place on closed lakes, reservoirs, and inland rivers, part of the problem is hidden from view. For example, on the Caspian Sea, every winter several hundred fishing vessels and transport ships move into the southern part of the sea to take over 30,000 tons of fish.
Even so, it is evident that, as the fishing fleet expands in size, and as more and more fishing vessels move into new areas, more fish will be caught. As the catch increases, the dependence on imports decreases, posing the threat of vanishing markets to those nations which have been suppliers of fish and fish products not only to the Soviet Union, but to the captive nations as well. Iceland, for example, exports fish, and this one commodity accounts for 95 per cent of the nation’s total exports. Over half of this total has been going to the Soviet Union and to the captive nations. As bloc needs decrease, Iceland will have to seek other markets in an effort to compensate for losses in exports which will result from decreasing bloc dependence on imports from abroad.
Historically, fish has been an important item in the Russian diet. In the pre-World War II days, and later, in the years after 1947, the Soviet Union’s fish catch averaged better than one and one-half million tons annually, (See Table I.) Yet even quantities such as these were not adequate to meet demands and, about 1950, a clamor arose in the Soviet press for the acquisition of fish factory ships, trawlers, and other types of ships for use in connection with fishing activities on the high seas. Too, warnings were sounded that old fishing grounds were being depleted, the result of too great exploitation. With the collapse of the Sixth Five-Year Plan came the reorganization of industry as a whole and the old Ministry for the Fishing Industry was abolished.
Today the fishing industry is headed by a Minister, A. A. Ishkov, who is a member of the State Planning Commission. The industry is administered along the following lines. Within the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic there are 17 Sovnarkhoz (Council for the National Economy) organizations supervising fishing activities, an independently listed grouping for “local industry” and the recently formed, all-inclusive, Far Eastern Fishing Industry. Further, and for the U.S.S.R. as a whole, the statistical breakdown includes 11 other republics besides the R.S.F.S.R. and the two semi-independent organizational entities noted. These organizations control schools, academies, shipbuilding and ship repair yards, scientific and research activities, and the many different types of fishing vessels with which we are concerned. For it is upon the work of the fishing vessels that the success of the present plan depends. Minister Ishkov, late in 1959, announced that the Seven- Year Plan (1959-1965) for the fishing industry required an increase to 4,640,000 tons by the end of 1965, as opposed to the 1958 figure of 2,900,000 tons. These figures are significant since they reflect the “diversification of leadership and irrational use of the fishing fleet” which had occurred in 1957 and 1958 and which had resulted in a sharp decline in catch results when compared with plans.
Table I is evidence of the fact that the fish catch has not, in recent years, increased at the same rates which had prevailed earlier. Figures for 1960 are merely estimates based on an announced completion percentage of 104 of the first ten months of 1960. However, the Far East, which provides all the crab, virtually all the salmon, and almost 70 per cent of the total sardine catch, was, for the same period of time, at but 89 per cent of its plan. The extent to which each area of the Soviet Union contributes to the over-all plan can be seen from Table II.
TABLE 1 |
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CATCH OF FISH, MARINE ANIMALS AND WHALES (1,000 metric tons) |
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Year |
Total |
Fish |
1940 |
1,404 |
1,385 |
1950 |
1,755 |
1,627 |
1955 |
2,737 |
2,498 |
1957 |
3,020 (Planned) |
|
|
2,675 (Actual) |
2,400 (Est) |
1958 |
2,900 |
2,621 |
1959 |
3,000 |
2,700 (Est) |
1960 |
3,200 (Est) |
2,800 (Est) |
1965 |
4,640 (Planned) |
|
The fishing industry, so far as can be determined, is attempting to maintain the same level of production it has developed over the past five years or so. There is little doubt that part of the failure to move forward at a greater rate has resulted from the over-exploitation of the historically used fishing grounds.
Consequently, efforts have been directed towards restocking depleted waters and imposing restrictions as to quantities of fish which may be taken in specific areas at specific times. Efforts have been made to stock rivers and seas with new species of fish as well.
*Gross figures for the years selected for use in this table were 1,404, 1,755 and 2,737, respectively. The difference is presumed to be the catch on the more than 100,000 rivers and the many lakes and reservoirs in the U.S.S.R. The total length of these rivers is given as 2.5 million kilometers. The basin of the Volga River alone includes over 7,000 rivers, the total length of which is 213,000 kilometers.
This seeding effort is part of the program to increase stocks so as to meet planned figures by the end of 1965. The increase, according to the directives, is to come about as a result, primarily, of the expansion and development of the industry along “rational” lines. While the industry is said to have a solid base for its activities, changes are to take place in the methods used to fish, as well as in the types or species taken. Part of the change involves the replacement of the small fishing vessels with large, oceangoing types with unlimited operating radii. Too, Soviet fishermen are to desert the inland water areas and the closed seas for the open oceans. Eighty per cent of the 1965 catch, for example, is to come from the open oceans. This shift of base will permit the restocking of depleted areas and the transplanting of certain species from one area to another.
Soviet scientists are said to have obtained great success in filling such reservoirs as the Novosibirsk, Rybinsk, Tsimlyanskiy, and many others with fish brought in from other areas. Included are pike, perch, bream, and sazan, a fresh water fish of the carp family. Species found in the Ob River have been transplanted in the Amur River, in the Ural River and in the new Pavlovsk Reservoir, as well as in the Caspian Sea in the Astrakhan area. River ship operators have been cautioned that carelessness on their part, such as the pumping of oil into the water, will result in killing the seedlings. Another problem is that of industrial waste materials which are piped into the rivers.
The process has been going on for some time now, with the result that grey mullet, which were transplanted from the Black Sea to the Caspian, have flourished and are now present in sufficient quantity to make them worth catching. Sevruga, a species of sturgeon, has been transplanted from the northern Caspian to the Aral Sea, an area which also supports sprats which came from the Baltic. In 1956, some 60 million fertilized humpbacked salmon eggs were flown from Sakhalin to the Kola Peninsular area. Today the mature fish have been caught along the Norwegian coast, reaching sizes in excess of 20 inches and weighing as much as 3.3 pounds, as compared with an average of 2.7 pounds for the Far East species.
This program of transplantation and seeding has been undertaken within an over-all plan which includes the procurement, by purchase and construction within the Soviet Union, of the ships needed to get the fish. This fishing fleet can be grouped into the broad categories of auxiliaries, fishing vessels, and whalers.
Ship Procurement
In 1934, the Soviet publication, Economic Review of the Soviet Union, reported that, in the four-year period 1929-1933, the number of motor vessels in the fishing industry increased from 56 to 4,500 (including 96 trawlers, 66 seiners, 97 whalers and sealers, and 10 crabbers). This increase was, however, only the beginning of a program of mechanization, since, according to the publication, the total fleet was made up of 110,000 boats. This total included everything from the one-man boats used on the Amur and other rivers to the largest of the whaling and transporter ships.
Today the, figure is probably not far removed from that given in 1934, but the difference is in the quality and size of the ships which operate on the high seas, in coastal waters, on lakes and the new reservoirs, and in river estuaries. Based on reported catch figures and study of the statistical materials available, it is estimated that of 100,000 craft, some 23,000 are steam- or diesel-propelled fishing vessels and ships of modern design and capabilities. An official announcement, made in October 1959, stated that the fishing fleets would receive some 14,000 new units of all types, from all sources, in the course of the Seven-Year Plan. Plans call for the installation of freezer plants in trawlers, as well as for the building of 68 factory ships with freezer installations and 47 refrigerator ships for use in transporting the frozen products from the fishing grounds to continental ports. Twenty- six base ships, or floating canneries, are to be obtained, as are crab canneries. The majority of the fleet will continue, however, to be made up of the trawlers and seiners which do the actual fishing. State standards for these types are tabulated on the next page.
These types are basic, but many other, larger units have been added to the lists since they were established in 1956. Procurement has been obtained from Western yards, from Soviet bloc yards and from Soviet shipyards.
As a result of the economic difficulties generated by World War II and its aftermath, Soviet negotiators were able to place orders for fishing vessels and auxiliaries in virtually every one of the shipbuilding nations allied to the Western alliance, as well as in the shipyards of the captive nations. Under the pressures generated by many factors, Finland concluded an agreement with the Soviet Union in 1948, another which extended the original agreement to include the period 1956—1960. In this latter period, Finland provided the Soviet Union with fifteen 800- horsepower trawlers and 38 medium fishing trawlers (SRT) in the 300-400-horsepower class. No further deliveries of this type are called for in the agreement which extended the contract beyond 1960.
The United States fought a losing battle in its efforts to impose a ban on the export of fishing vessels to the Soviet Union by those of our allies who were hard hit by the lack of orders for their shipyards.
The Brooke Marine Shipbuilding Company, in Lowestoft, England, took an order for 20 trawlers, the last of which slid down the ways in May, 1958. Total cost to the Soviet Union was between 116,800,000 and $19,600,000. These trawlers, the finest products of British shipbuilding skill, had, on delivery, a speed in excess of 12 knots, were strengthened for operations in the Arctic, and outfitted accordingly. Deliveries such as these have enabled the Soviet Union to effect the conversions which now carry on the passive countermeasures work along our coasts, as well as the work at sea with oceanographers which provide the scientific information needed to develop antisubmarine warfare tactics.
Only two of the nations involved in deliveries to the Soviet Union have been mentioned. Others include West Germany, Denmark, and Japan. Sudoimport, a state organization engaged in the business of ship procurement abroad, was, in late 1959, dickering with one of the shipyards in West Germany which had already built over 20 trawlers and fish factory ships and was engaged in building several refrigerator ships for the Soviet Union.
Major additions to the fishing fleet, however, come from the captive nations of Poland and East Germany. Poland, indeed, has been a prime contributor. The delivery program, a continuing one, and one which includes merchant types as well, lists 15 herring trawler tenders of 11,540 GRT each, nine of which have already been delivered. Each can carry 9,300 tons of cargo and is able to land a small helicopter. The first four were steam- propelled; the remainder are diesels. The commercial agreement between the two nations calls for the delivery of 122 ships in the period 1960-1965, many of them for the fishing industry.
East Germany delivers as many as 75 medium fishing trawlers with refrigerated holds every year. The Okean-class has been succeeded by the Tropik-class, designated the SRTR, of 1,300 horsepower. This building program, to cost the Soviet Union $270,000,000, resulted in the delivery of ten of the new trawlers to the Estonian flotilla in 1959 alone. Twenty-five more were added to the Latvian flotilla early in 1960, with eight scheduled for delivery by the end of 1960 to bring the total to 33 for the year. With a bigger engine, a refrigerator hold and better equipment, these units should add considerable strength to these Baltic-based flotillas. East Germany is also building floating repair shops for use in repairing small trawlers. One was delivered to Riga in the summer of 1960, with more, apparently, to follow.
Soviet Shipbuilding
Great as has been the assist to the Soviet fishing fleet of the products of Western and captive shipyards, the assist given by Soviet shipyards has also been great. Soviet contributions to her fleet range in size from fishing boats (MRB) to the huge whaler bases such as Sovetskaya Ukraina.
TRAWLERS |
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Designation |
Type |
Horsepower |
RT* |
Fishing trawler |
Over 600 |
SRT* |
Medium fishing trawler |
300-400 |
MRT† |
Small fishing trawler |
150-240 |
RB† |
Fishing boat |
80 |
*Unlimited cruising radius
†Limited to operations 50-100 miles off shore.
SEINERS |
||||||
Designation |
Type |
Endurance, day |
Speed, knots |
HP |
Cargo, tons |
Maximum draft, meters |
RS* |
Fishing seiner |
10 |
10 |
300 |
40 |
3.2 |
SRS† |
Medium fishing seiner |
8 |
9 |
160 |
25 |
2.3 |
MRS‡ |
Small fishing seiner |
5 |
8 |
80 |
10 |
1.7 |
*Unlimited cruising radius.
†Limited up to 100 miles off shore.
‡Limited up to 20 miles off shore.
It has always been the practice, at least since the Soviet industry started its development, to assign shipyards specifically to the fishing industry. In the 1930’s, the industry controlled eight shipyards. The exact number is, today, uncertain, but the production of several shipyards producing exclusively for the fishing fleet has been recorded. One such yard is the Petrozavodsk Shipyard which builds the MRB-class. This motorized fishing boat is in use on the Volga River, the Caspian, and White Seas, and in the Far East. Exports to undisclosed destinations are to take place in 1961. A shipyard under the jurisdiction of the Leningrad Sovnarkhoz builds seiners which are in use on Lake Ladoga, Lake Chudskoye, in the Volga delta, in Kazakhstan, and in the Atlantic. A prime builder of trawlers is the Leninskaya Kuznitsa Shipyard in Kiev, on the Dnepr River. This shipyard built its first trawler in 1954 and by 1956 was building an improved design to fish the waters of the North Atlantic, the Barents Sea, the Baltic, and the Far East. The Far East cannot build its requirements and is, therefore, assisted by the products built in the European part of the Soviet Union or assigned from the over-all program. However, the Khabarovsk Shipyard is using trawler plans developed in Kiev to build the class locally, and the first production went into service in 1958. The same plans were sent to Klaypeda (Memel) and the shipyard there and Komsomolets Litvyi was delivered in 1958 as well. Klaypeda, in 1960, built several floating repair shops designed to take care of the needs for repairs of trawlers assigned.
Similar to the type building in East Germany, the PM-class is self-contained and manned by a crew of 42 men. At least eight were built in 1960, three of which were towed around to the Far East. In July 1960, the Kiev yard announced the completion of preliminary work on plans for a new class of trawler-freezer which is to be equipped with instruments for searching for fish in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Much improvement in design of fishing vessels has taken place as net handling has become mechanized, electrical and electronic equipment has been installed and, most recently, variable pitch propellers have been fitted to trawlers.
Much of the production of shipyards, abroad and within the Soviet Union, moves to the Caspian Sea via the inland waterways with the result that, as ice closes the northern part of the sea, the authorities are able to send several hundred ships to the south, basing them in the Salyanyi Roadstead, 85 miles south of Baku. In recent years, the fleet has included as many as 80 large and small seiners and fish-freezer ships of the Drtizhba-class equipped with electric lighting to attract the fish and fish pumps to bring them on board. More than 100 other ships are assigned to carry the fish to port, to return to the fishing grounds with salt, crates, cans, and other equipment. Delfin, a floating repair shop, goes along to handle emergency repairs. Not all new ships are imported, however. Caspian shipyards contribute their quotas and among most recent additions are two floating factories for use in the manufacture of fats and fish meal.
The big shipyard in Nikolayev was assigned the task of building the Mayakovskiy- class (3,170 GRT), the prototype going into service in 1958. The present program calls for 30 to be built in the course of the Seven-Year Plan, with seven going to Latvia in 1960. This class is equipped with a complex of radioelectrical navigation instruments, hydrophones, a “fish seeker” and the usual fish processing and freezing installations. Use is made of the stern trawl method and the endurance rating is 80 days.
Among the auxiliary ships assigned to the fishing fleets are those of the Aktyubinsk-class (5,217 GRT) built in Leningrad, the first of which was in service in 1956. These are refrigerator ships. Others include the floating hospital ship Beluga, Belyana, a so-called “agitation” vessel which carries entertainers, mail, and reading materials to the fishing grounds for the morale building purposes involved in such work. Meetings are held and lectures are given as well on these trips which frequently last for several months. Salvage tugs are also assigned to stand by on the fishing grounds and are manned by experienced divers and other artificers who, among other jobs, free propellers which get fouled by lines and nets, do welding and cutting work, and odd jobs within their capabilities. All these efforts are directed towards one goal—keeping the working craft on the job for as long as possible. Aiding in the effort are the transport ships which bring men and materials and supplies back and forth. One ship of this type is Tungus, a Lend-Lease Liberty ship, which has been converted to serve as a base and transport ship for the herring fishermen in the North Atlantic. The trawlers, seiners, and freezers discharge into the larger ships which, in turn, replenish the smaller ones with fuel, food, and supplies in the open sea before returning to home ports to begin the process all over again.
Biggest of all the ships built, and building, for the fishing fleet are the whaler bases, Sovetskaya Ukraina and Sovetskaya Rossiya, ranging between 32,000 and 36,000 GRT. Because the tonnages gathered by the whaling flotillas (Aleut in the Far East and Slava in the Antarctic) are included in over-all results obtained by the fishing industry, some mention should be made of this important segment of the industry. Whereas the older flotillas were, and are, accompanied by old, slow catcher ships, the latest of the flotillas, Sovetskaya Ukraina includes 18 new, fast diesel-electric propelled catchers built in Nikolayev as well. The whaling expeditions are usually accompanied by converted catcher ships manned by Soviet oceanographers who not only make industrial surveys, but who do, as well, research connected with their particular specialties in well-equipped, modern laboratories, using the best available equipment and instruments.
In contrast to our own efforts in the whaling field—nil—consider the contribution made by Sovetskaya Ukraina on her first trip to the Antarctic. She departed Odessa in October 1959, and returned to port on 21 May 1960. In her hunting time in the Antarctic, she took 1,624 whales, obtaining 38,600 tons of sperm oil, 7,270 tons of fodder for cattle and fowl, 2,140 tons of fresh-frozen meat, and 726 tons of liver with a high, vitamin A content. Among the 18 catcher ships which accompanied the expedition, three were assigned to train future harpooners and one to do research. Replenishment required the use of five tankers with fuel and supplies, as well as a stop by Ob, the Antarctic survey ship. This one voyage is said to have made over 100 million rubles in profits and to have completely paid for the cost of building the whaler.
Personnel
Behind all the activity of the fishing industry is the individual Soviet fisherman, be he a deck hand or a captain. What kind of a fisherman is he? How is he trained? How does he do his job? From the criticism leveled at him, he appears to be no better, nor worse, than any other fisherman. His training is undertaken in schools subordinate to his own industry. One such is the Sakhalin Maritime School in Nevelsk, a fishing center in the Far East. Students are enrolled in the deck and engineering divisions in groups based on seven classes. Instruction is of a technical nature, at about high school level, for a period of years and students may enter up to 30 years of age. Upon graduation they become mates and engineers. The school also conducts courses by correspondence.
Until 1960, the individual sovnarkhozes were responsible for enforcement of fishing fleet rules and regulations. This function has now been taken from them and vested in the State Fishing Fleet Inspection, the chief of which is State Inspector N. Goryunov.
In June 1960, Goryunov wrote that the fishing organizations, despite the difficult conditions of vessel operation, had been assigning inexperienced deck and engineering personnel to top level jobs. These personnel, because of their lack of both theoretical and practical knowledge of their jobs, have contributed to serious conditions aboard their ships. At the lower levels of authority, and among the non-rated personnel, drunkenness and violations of “labor discipline” are all too common. In 1959, personnel of the Port Inspection Service in Kaliningrad reported 986 cases of rule violations on the part of crew members of ships in port. Fourteen ships were unable to get underway at specified times because crew members had not returned at expiration of shore leave.
Goryunov states that, in 1961-1962, the old practice of training command personnel over a short course will be abolished, because it has failed to accomplish its purpose. It is now planned to improve the quality of the training given to specialists who are to work in the fishing industry. A prerequisite for a student entering one of the industry’s maritime schools will be one year spent on a fishing vessel, either on deck or in the engine room.
It is unclear whether or not this last requirement will also apply to demobilized naval personnel who may want to work in the industry. At the last demobilization, certain rules were published which waived requirements for former naval officers as well as for enlisted men who had attended specified types of training schools. Certain of these ex- naval men have become trawler captains, apparently retaining a reserve status at the same time.
Research Activities
Many of the personnel in the latter category are, undoubtedly, included among the crews of the research ships assigned to the fishing industry. These research ships are usually assigned to what are known as Bases for Expeditionary Fishing, as opposed to the Bases for Active Ocean Fishing which handle the working craft. And these research ships are heavy contributors to the ever-increasing store of knowledge being accumulated by Soviet scientists. Seapower is, indeed, a blend of many things, not the least of which is a knowledge of the medium in which one must operate. Today seapower tends to be relegated to a minor role because of the glamor of something called “aerospace.” Consider the fact, therefore, that while our scientists have completely mapped the heavens so that we can identify stars with ease and familiarity, less than one per cent of the deep sea floor has been mapped by our scientists with any degree of reliability. Indeed, it is only when events crowd in upon us that we are brought back to the realization that seapower is still the complex, but balanced blend of civilian and naval strength that it always has been since men first took to the high seas.
There is little question but that, in contrast to our own meager effort (about 45 ships), the Soviet Union is making full use of its fishing fleet to further not only its industrial, but its scientific-military interests as well. Soviet publicists make no attempt to hide the fact that many of the ships in their trawling flotillas are equipped as weather reporting stations at the very least. Nor have they hidden the fact that many of their ships, originally built as trawlers, have been converted to survey and research ships specifically outfitted to do all aspects of oceanography.
At this point a careful distinction must be made. Not all fishing vessels carry the equipment that the survey ships do, nor are fishing vessels always outfitted as well. The survey ships are the priority ships and are given what equipment is available. In contrast, there is the example of the fishing vessels operating in the Irtyish River estuary and on out into the Arctic Ocean. Manning of the fishing vessels in this area has been described as “worst of all” by the Senior Inspector for the Navigation Inspection, with many of the mates being unlicensed. Equipment and navigational aids on many of the ships was so poor as to prevent their being permitted to go to sea. In order to protect crews and ships, the inspectors held 37 ships for periods ranging from two to 14 days in order to eliminate faults which would have resulted in serious casualties.
Yet another distinction should be made. It is no secret that the explorations which take place have for their purpose the seeking out of new and more abundant fishing grounds. The purpose of the search is to find areas where the expanding fishing fleets can operate profitably, and it so happens that the types of fishing vessels which are coming in ever more common use under the Hammer and Sickle have the capability of roaming far and wide over both the Atlantic and the Pacific. There are others, however, which never depart Soviet territorial waters.
Among this latter category are Professor Vasnetsov and SRT-1127, based in Rostov, on the Don River, and operating in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea for the Azov Scientific-Research Institute for the Fishing Industry. On the other hand Genets, operating out of Kerch, on the Black Sea, has taken an expedition organized by the Azov-Black Sea Institute for Fishing and Oceanography as far as the Aegean Sea. Kronshtadt operates in the Barents Sea, providing survey information for fishermen based in Murmansk, while Tunets, operating in the same area, is classed as a scientific-research ship. In the fall of 1959, this latter ship took a group of scientists from the Polar Scientific-Research Institute out to gather information in the vicinity of Spitzbergen’s west coast in order that charts might be made up for fishermen. Penetration was made to 80°22' North, 11°34' East and, although fish were found, the quantities were not sufficient to warrant sending a flotilla of trawlers. The expedition, headed by a woman scientist, established the fact that the best fishing seasons were May-June and October—November. The scientists also marked 500 cod and released them in the northern part of the research area. While in the area, the ship broadcast daily information to the fishing vessels on locations and depths at which fish were to be found.
Scientific Fishing
In the summer of 1957, Kazan (2,452 GRT), built in West Germany, was designated as flagship of a scientific-research expedition which departed Kaliningrad for the waters of the central and south Atlantic off the African coast to find new fishing grounds for sardines and tuna. The results of the 155-day trip were such as to lead to a continuation of work in the area and, in 1958, an expedition was sent out by the Kherson Sovnarkhoz with orders to find the best way to fish the sardines in the area. The ships were outfitted in Kerch, which appears to have become a base for such activities, where new navigation installations were added to the participating ships. Added to the expedition was the big freezer-trawler Taras Shevchenko.
In 1959, the trawler Zhukovskiy (3,170 GRT) and the seiners Grot and Zatvor were assigned to make a four-month long expedition to the African coast carrying the first Ukrainian Scientific-Industrial Fishing Expedition. A crew from the Kiev Studio for Popular Scientific Films went along and made a movie titled “In the Far-off Waters of the Atlantic” which was to have been released for public consumption in 1960.
By mid-1960, the number of trawlers operating in the Atlantic off the African coast totaled eight, each of which had a doctor aboard. Included in this group were Gleb Uspenskiy, Griboyedov, Turgenev, and Mamin-Sibiryak. Polessk, a cargo ship operating out of Kaliningrad, was sent to service the group which was, at one time, in the Gulf of Guinea. The excuse for moving into this area, as recorded in the press, was similar to that noted for the move into the Grand Banks area off Newfoundland. In the latter case, fishing vessels operating out of Kaliningrad had found no fish in the usual areas of the Norwegian Sea and had simply moved to an area where fishing was better.
Before leaving the Atlantic, the activities of Severyanka should be noted. This converted Red Navy submarine most recently operated with the converted trawler Akademik Berg, returning to her home port of Murmansk on 31 December 1960 upon the completion of her sixth voyage, one during which the two craft covered an area in the North Atlantic between Iceland and the Faroe Islands, fishing grounds for Soviet herring trawlers. The object of this most recent voyage was to find out why trawls used by the fishing vessels were not catching the quantities of fish they were designed for. Cruising submerged astern of the trawl, the personnel in the submarine gathered data and made pictures and films of the action of the trawls which will contribute to better designs in the future, according to reports. Both the submarine and her escort carried specialists in the fields of fishing, hydro- acoustics, icthyology, lighting, and hydrobiology. Soviet writers were not slow in contrasting the voyage of Severyanka with that of George Washington “which is equipped with missiles and is making a demonstration trip in the Atlantic.” At this writing Severyanka is undergoing extensive modernization.
Our own press has featured events in the Atlantic, primarily because Vega was photographed as she was, because of the interference of a Soviet trawler with trials being conducted with the same George Washington, and because of the huge concentrations of trawlers which have been reported in the area. This should not cause us to neglect events in the Pacific, for here, too, expansion of Soviet fishing activities and research endeavors has occurred.
A Soviet observer at the recent International North Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission meeting stated that the “Soviet fishing industry is certainly interested in the expansion of fishing in the Pacific Ocean . . . and [is] always ready to co-operate.” The statement is understandable, particularly in view of the fact that Soviet statistics shown declining salmon catches over the past 20 years. In fact, by 1959, exploratory efforts in the Pacific were full blown. Nora, a “clipper,” is a regular explorer of the area, having covered the northwestern Pacific seeking out tuna, and other types of fish, in quantities sufficient to justify their taking. In 1959, she sailed from Vladivostok on a voyage which took her as far south as the Caroline Islands, an area never fished over by Far Eastern fishermen. In the fall of the same year, another group of fishing vessels spent four months in the same area.
Svetlana, a schooner, was assigned to a three- month-long survey of the food available to fish in the waters of Peter the Great Bay. On board was a group from the Far Eastern State University and the Pacific Ocean Scientific Research Institute for Fishing.
Survey ships have found mackerel in the South China Sea, ruff in the northeastern Pacific. Large expeditions were scheduled for 1960, including those scheduled to survey the Yellow Sea and the northeastern Pacific. Karaga, an “experimental” trawler said to be seeking new fishing grounds, is of more than usual interest because not only the captain, but many members of the crew as well, are demobilized military personnel.
Strategic Implications
Minister Ishkov has announced in specific terms that not long ago only single Soviet fishing vessels operated in the North Atlantic, but that today there are “hundreds” in the area, which have taken up to 1,000,000 tons of sardines, bass, and cod in a year. This announcement is not news, of course. It is not only confirmed by individual Soviet statements, but also by the Administration for Expeditionary Fishing of the Latvian S.S.R. which states that it has over 100 industrial ships, plus a score or more of transport ships, and other auxiliaries under its control. This fleet is still growing. In addition to its trawlers in the North Atlantic, this particular Administration, in mid-1960, had some 20 trawlers operating in the North Sea. Reports from sources in the west, including those attributed to the U. S. Navy, indicate that there are from 200 to 400 such ships always at sea in strategic areas. Add to this number the countless fishing craft shuttling back and forth through strategic waters and the picture becomes a disturbing one, particularly to nations bordering on the Baltic Sea, an area which the Soviet Union has more than once openly stated should be regarded as a Soviet lake
We, in the United States, are concerned with the appearance of so many of these fishing vessels in waters contiguous to our coasts and, despite the fact that we can do nothing about such presences so long as our territorial waters are not invaded, we must, necessarily, be concerned about their presence and their actions. Similarly, our allies on the Baltic not only are, but have been for years, concerned with the steadily mounting traffic along their coasts. As one Danish official expressed it to the writer some years ago, “It is disturbing to know, as one drops off to sleep, that there are as many as a hundred Soviet trawlers always off the coast. If the Soviet Union wanted to, it could certainly land a sizable force on our shores without our knowledge.”
Despite a threat such as this, as well as the threat posed by having so many vessels capable of mining strategic waters, it should be reiterated that the overwhelming majority of fishing vessels in the Soviet fleet are, today, engaged in the occupation for which they were built.
The significance of the expansion in Soviet fishing fleet activities lies in the two-pronged problem already stated that will remain with us for the foreseeable future. What can we do to counter the economic problem which arises as a result of decreasing markets for exporter nations? And how shall we counter the passive countermeasures activities of an ever-expanding fleet of fishing vessels? These are serious questions which we will have to answer.
Enlisting in the Navy in 1931, Commander Kassell was commissioned in 1942 and served in Idaho, Yorktown, Morris, and Snowden during World War II. He was Electronics Officer at Fleet Training Center in Norfolk and subsequently studied the Russian language and history at Cornell. He served as Repair Officer in Bryce Canyon (AD-36) and Sierra (AD-18). After attending General Line School at Monterey, he was CO, MSTSO, Casablanca, Morocco. Commander Kassell retired in 1960 and is currently engaged in research and free-lance writing.