Science and the Soviet Fisheries

Abstract

THE progress of the Soviet fishing industry and the part played therein by science are graphically illustrated at an exhibition opened in the new building of the All-Union Institute of Sea Fisheries and Oceanography in Moscow. Various exhibits show the means by which the catch of sea fish has been almost doubled in recent years, reaching 1,650,000 tons in 1937. A big modern fishing industry, equipped with up-to-date canneries, cold-storage facilities, refrigerator vessels and a fleet of trawlers, has been built up in the last twenty years. The production of tinned and frozen fish during the first and second five-year plans has been trebled, while the output of smoked fish is twenty-three times its former figure. An important feature in the development of the Soviet fishing industry is its extension to new regions. Before the Revolution, the Caspian and Azov Seas were the main fishing centres. To-day, an extensive fishing industry has been built up in the Far East and in the White and Barents Seas. The Far East has 41 canneries, with an annual output capacity of 150 million tins, as well as large floating crab canneries and a whaling fleet. The growth of the fishing industry in the White Sea is illustrated by the fact that the catch in the Murmansk Region last year was nearly 280,000 tons, as compared with 13,000 tons in 1913.