This is an account of a brief mission to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia made by the author, 18–29 July 1966, at the request of the Government. The purposes of the mission were to:
make a rapid survey of the status of the inland fisheries of the country;
enumerate their problems with respect to research, management and development, and
suggest means that might be taken to realize a fuller development of the commercial and sport fisheries of the inland waters including pond fish culture.
Owing to the short time available, field work had to be confined to certain areas in Serbia and Croatia where it was concentrated on a portion of the Danube River fishery, carp and trout farms, and some sport fishing areas. Notably absent from the itinerary were visits to the large natural lakes in the south, reservoirs and potential areas of river basin development.
In view of the restrictions of such a survey - both in time and extent of travel - it would be presumptious of the writer to attempt to describe the Yugoslav inland fisheries in detail or try to define all of their problems. This report will confine itself, therefore, to a general picture of the inland fisheries as the author saw them, followed by an evaluation of some major problems, and finally by suggestions for a following mission composed of a team of international experts of varying disciplines. This group working together with Yugoslav authorities should study the problems in depth and present definite suggestions for further development.
It should be noted that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has already sent a number of individual fishery experts to Yugoslavia under the former Expanded Technical Assistance Program (EPTA) of the United Nations. However, the missions of only two of these experts were devoted exclusively to inland fisheries: one in 1953 to investigate fish diseases on carp farms (Wunder, 1954); another in 1955–56 to demonstrate methods of fish detection and capture in inland waters (Meschkat, 1956).
Two missions concerning fish processing, in 1952–53 and 1953–54, respectively, dealt primarily with marine species but offered some advice on the canning and smoking of freshwater fish (see Vesterhus, 1953, and Tengberg-Hansen, 1954). An expert was also assigned to Yugoslavia in 1954 to provide advice on the handling, collection, transport, storage and refrigeration of fish. His work was also devoted primarily to problems of sea fish, but he did meet with officials from the freshwater fishing industry, and his report is concerned in part with inland transport, marketing facilities, etc. (see MacCallum, 1954).
Another one-man mission was sent to Yugoslavia in 1954 to conduct a survey of the marketing and distribution of fish products and to advise and assist the Government on the introduction of measures designed to achieve a more economic utilization of fish supplies in the country and improve the level and pattern of fish consumption in the country. Again, this work dealt primarily with marine fish although freshwater fish were included in the study (see FAO/UN, 1957). 1
In view of the above it might be considered that FAO had already offered a reasonable amount of aid to the inland fisheries of the country. However, twelve years have passed since the last FAO fishery mission. The economy of Yugoslavia has changed. Technical knowledge both within and without the country has increased, and more Yugoslavs have been trained in fisheries work. The situation in 1966 is decidedly different from that in 1954, and - to reiterate the author's conclusion - it is felt that a combined international-Yugoslav working group would be the one best equipped to define the problems of inland fishery development and to outline a program for their solution.
