FAO.org

Fisheries make an important contribution to the national economy of the USSR. Fish is a traditional food which comprises 20 percent of the total protein consumed by the population, and the government and other political bodies are currently concerned to increase production. The territory of the Soviet Union occupies almost one sixth of the global land surface, with one third in Europe and two thirds in Asia. The 15 Soviet Socialist Republics are:

The rate of development of Soviet fisheries has been unique. At the inception of the Soviet state, in 1917, fishery production was minimal, but by 1940 the combined marine and freshwater catch had reached 1.4 million tons per year. This declined almost to zero during World War II, but grew again subsequently, so that recently the annual production of fish and other aquatic organisms has exceeded 10 million tons. The USSR now ranks second, after Japan, in fisheries production. The inland fisheries component con- stitutes an increasingly important part of the total production and comes from fish farms as well as capture fisheries, but the latter are most important in the USSR, where there arc millions of hectares of lakes, reservoirs and water courses.

Soviet inland water bodies are typically subject to multiple use, providing for power generation, irrigation, transport, recreation, and domestic and industrial water supply as well as fisheries. In consequence they are now subject to increasing levels of pollution. The other uses of inland waters often take priority over fisheries and tend to affect fisheries adversely.