Arctic Science Journeys
Radio Script
1996

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Russian Fisheries Modernize
(Remaster from 2/96)
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STORY: Ever since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russians have been busy turning their state-run economy into a free-market system. One place where transformation has come quickly is in Russia's Far East. There, Russia's commercial fishing economy is undergoing a sea-change.

Terry Johnson is a fisheries advisor with the University of Alaska's Marine Advisory Program. He recently toured fishing and seafood processing operations in the far east Siberian city of Petropavlovsk.

Johnson: "They're modernizing. It's all a question of capital. Things happen there absolutely as quickly as money can be found to do it with."

In one case, Terry Johnson recalled how two Russian scientists made a deal with a manager of a newly privatized steel mill. The scientists used money from the sale of surplus steel to refurbish fishing boats, and in exchange, the scientists-turned-fishermen gave a portion of their catch to feed the employees of the mill.

Johnson: "They didn't know a thing about fishing, but they had friends around the country and they were smart guys who knew how to put together deals. They just basically gave him a promise that in a couple of years they'd send him so many thousands of cases of canned salmon. And at the time they made the deal, they didn't even have a salmon cannery."

Russia produces only about 275 million pounds of salmon each year--less than half that of nearby Alaska. Most of the catch is low-grade pink salmon that is canned and sold domestically. But other higher-priced seafood, like pollock, halibut and crab, are poised to play an important role on the world marketplace. Gunnar Knapp is a professor and resource economist at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Knapp: "There are evidently very substantial volumes of crab and ground fish entering world markets, and that's very much a factor. I suspect it's important on the halibut side too."

Foreign investors--largely from Japan, Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan, and to a lesser extent the United States-- are providing the capital to fuel the changes occurring in the industry.

Knapp: "There are some Japanese investments and they are producing good quality fish, and there are some American investments that are also producing good quality. My perception is that the stuff that's high quality is a small fraction of the total. And my sense, and this partly relates to my other experience in Russia, is that overall, they are going to have enormous quality problems for a long time."

Still, no one is counting Russia out. Professor Knapp is quick to remind U.S. fishermen that Russia's vast ocean waters contain huge, largely untapped fisheries resources and their proximity to lucrative Asian markets could one day make them a dominant player in North Pacific fisheries.

Reporting from Fairbanks, this is Debra Damron for Arctic Science Journeys.