Russians Out-fishing U.S.

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31576, 13 January 1968, Page 19

Russians Out-fishing U.S.

(From FRANK OLIVER, N.Z.P.A. special correspondent) WASHINGTON, Jan. 12. The fishing pact signed by the United States and Russia last November is proving anything but popular with East Coast fishermen. They are, says one report, “outraged” by its provisions. The Russians, who caused something of an uproar in Alaska not long ago by their fishing methods in the United States’ back yard, are now angering American fishermen in the “front yard,” of the East Coast between Maine and New Jersey. The reasons for the anger are much the same as those which caused so much unpleasantness in Alaskan waters. The “invaders” are bringing new methods and a new technology to fishing far beyond the American methods. This means that the Americans are out-fished in what they regard as their home waters, which “belong” to

them, thus limiting their market and threatening, say the fishermen here, to deplete seriously the stocks of fish off the East Coast.

Though the new pact is aimed at limiting the amount of fish the Russians take from eastern waters off the coast, it is not limiting enough to please American fishermen. For the Russians, fishing is really big business and, it is reported, they expect to have the world’s biggest fishing industry by 1980. INTEGRATED FLEET They are using off the East Coast a big fleet of vessels that range up to 20,000 tons dead-weight, and they use what New Jersey fishermen call the “vacuum cleaner method.” They line up their large trawlers as many as a dozen abreast and covering perhaps half a mile of water. The nets are put down and they drag the sea bottom for sixty or sevently miles. When the nets are hauled up, the catch of a dozen trawlers is put on an accompanying factory ship, where the fish are frozen, tinned, or otherwise processed. The Russian ships work as an integrated fleet They radio each other to exchange their findings. Some smaller ships are used almost exclusively for exploration, finding large schools of fish and directing the big trawlers to them. EFFICIENCY These methods represent an efficiency unknown in the American fishing industry, and it may well be that some local fishermen are irked by the fact that these “furriners” bring efficient methods to the shores of the allegedly most efficient nation in the world. By contrast with Russian methods, American fishermen are still old-fashioned. A fairly large fishing boat off the Jersey coast runs to about 150 tons, less than a tenth of even the amaller Russian vessels. Nor are units of the American fleet likely to exchange information. - The American fishermen are on

their own, and when they find a good school of fish they are likely to keep quiet about it, so as not to invite competition from their fellow fishermen. They do not have factory ships in attendance either. They may spend five or six days at sea, and then have to run up to a hundred miles to shore to turn in the catch and take on another cargo of ice. MEAGRE AFFAIR Thus, by comparison, the American fishing industry off Long Island or New Jersey is a meagre affair when put beside the sweeping, efficient operations of the Russians. The figures tell the tale. In 1966 the Russians took about 200,000 tons of fish from the waters south of Cape Cod. In 1967 the catch was down to 67,000 tons, and under the agreement reached last November they will again content themselves with 67,000 tons. The American catch in the same waters in 1967 was less than 15,000 tons. Efficient Russian methods pay dividends. So far, there have been reported no troubles such as those in recent years off the Alaskan coast, where the Russians fished inside territorial waters and sometimes got themselves and their ships arrested. On this side of the Continent they appear to be satisfied to fish well outside territorial limits most of the time. TERMS Under the new agreement, the Russians will not fish during the first three months of 1968 in the waters off Rhode Island and Long Island and this, say the authorities, will protect the interests of American fishermen and help restore badiy-depleted fish stocks.

It Is during that period of the year that fish concentrate in the off-shore areas, before moving towards the coast where American trawlers do most of their fishing. In return for restraint during the three months, the Russian vessels will be allowed to fish between 10 and six miles off a 10-mile stretch of Long Island, and factory ships will be permitted to load in off-shore areas sheltered from wintry conditions. Close in-shore fishing by the Russians will also be permitted off the New Jersey coast between September 15 and May 15. MEANS MORE Fish, o£ course, means much more to the Russian nation than it does to the United States. In 1965 the total Russian catch was 5.6 m tons from all sources, or more than 10 per cent of world fish production that year. Americans are not exactly a fish-eating people. The consumption a head of fish and fishery products amounts to an insignificant 111 b a year, about the same as 20 years ago. By contrast, the average consumption of meat and meat products runs to 1751 b a year. The average person may not therefore be very upset by the vast amounts of fish being taken out of nearby waters by the Russians, but the fishermen remain most upset by the new agreement. One newspaper reports some of them as being enraged by the agreement, while the Mayor of Manasquan, a fishing town on the Jersey coast directly affected by the agreement, says: “This is going to pose a tremendous hardship on the small dragger and dock owners in this area.”