Fishery in Soviet Russia and the USSR in the Black Sea in the First Half of the 20th Century

Abstract

The retrospective historical analysis of development of the Russian fishery in the Black Sea has been continued for the period from collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) and the first post-war years. The heritage of tsarist Russia in this area of economic activity, such as primitiveness of fishing gears and fish processing technology, hand labor, lack of the power-driven fishing fleet, lack of the state fishery control, its spontaneous and consumer orientation, and limited geography, is considered. The first Soviet government decrees and resolutions in fishery regulation and protection of the Black Sea biological resources are studied. The facts of introduction of new methods of fish search (air reconnaissance), all-season fishing (distant-water fishery), and stock assessments (trawl surveys) are presented. The results of the first scientific fishery researches on the state and structure of resource base in the main traditional fishing areas are analyzed. The catch statistics for the main commercial species from the mid-1920s to 1940 is investigated. In 1939, the mean annual catch of the USSR in the Black Sea comprised 35000 tons that was about equal to the total catch of all Black Sea countries, and fish productivity of the sea amounted 2 kg per hectare. At the same time, resources of mullet, red mullet, belted bonito, flounder, mackerel, sprat, as well as oysters, mussels, and shrimps were underutilized for the technical and executive reasons, while the share of anchovy in total catch increased from 17.1% (1920-1930) to 34.2% in 1930-1940, and to 42.6% in 1949. It was concluded that the studied period could be considered as the beginning of establishment of legislative and scientific-technical foundation of fishery industry which in the second half of the 20th century became one of the most powerful economic sectors of the USSR.