Tradition becomes law
– We are going to go to the Barents Sea for a month, depending on how the fishing goes. We went out at night, past midnight. Why not during the day? And because it’s Monday, and on this day they don’t leave the pier, what a tradition, she says. Where it came from, to be honest, I don’t know. But we keep the traditions. All naval work rests precisely on tradition. Remember Peter the Great’s “Naval Regulations”, which was written in 1720? Whatever the century in the yard, for us this letter has always been and will be the main document. As long as it is fulfilled, the ships do not sink. In this sense, nothing has changed for fishermen in the last three hundred years. But there have been big changes.
The USSR had the strongest fishing fleet in the world, which worked in almost all areas of the oceans, the captain emphasizes. “Antarctic” voyages lasted six months or more. Squid was collected on the Patagonian shelf, in the Antarctic seas – krill, which scientists consider the most numerous species of living creatures on the planet. Crews changed with the help of aircraft. They came to the very shores of Antarctica, where Nikolai Neustroev once saw a 36-mile-long iceberg stranded. The strength of the Soviet fleet has always been logistics worked out to the smallest detail: fishing boats “ploughed” the sea with trawls, and then reloaded the catch directly into the sea on transport ships. Large tankers, from two to three thousand tons and more, delivered fuel to the fishing site. Mooring and reloading at sea, when the ships “ride” an impressive wave – the highest aerobatics of maritime art! A particularly strong roll is in the Pacific Ocean: its waves can literally tear iron apart. But Soviet fishermen also worked there.
– Only a strong state with large fleets, with a planned economy, could solve such a large-scale problem. – sure Nikolai Neustroev. – And allowed to provide people with cheap fish. Imagine, a kilogram of capelin cost only 12 kopecks! No private company, not even the largest, can do this. Today we really lack the participation of the state, but not control in every detail, not constant changes in the rules of the game, but real support for the industry. Now the laws are written, endlessly written, as soon as there is enough paper! But the fish don’t understand the difference between socialism and capitalism, and the sea doesn’t.
talking stove
In addition to the “Marine Charter” and naval traditions, the severity of fishing work remained unchanged. A steamboat is an organism that works day and night, non-stop. The working day of a crew member is at least 12 hours. Of course, today there are almost no boats left where fishermen in waterproof suits fish manually on the deck, in the open air, in an icy wind, splashed by waves, although there are still trawlers of this type in the coastal fleet. Modern high-performance automated equipment has appeared, the productivity of modern ships has increased many times compared to the eighties of the last century. However, it can hardly be said that this equipment is now working for the angler. Most of the time, the team manages to sleep no more than four or five hours a day. The fish consumer on land cannot even imagine how tired a sailor is after a long voyage. And so it has been for decades. If, of course, there is enough resistance.
– Twelve hours is just a fish skin with a knife in hand. And after work, you still need to put yourself in order, have dinner, do some personal business, – adds Nikolai Valentinovich. – Kok works even harder. After all, he must first feed the team breakfast before the working day, then lunch, then at 16:00 give the crew tea to drink, and then cook dinner. No wonder they say that the cook is the second person on the ship after the captain. It happened that he worked on a Norwegian ship where the kitchen equipment was automatic. The cook worked there alone, without an assistant. And one day this automatic computer oven, which requires an Internet connection, froze. Cook is surprised. I had to contact Danish specialists in this equipment. They quickly updated something over the Internet. The stove says: “I’m ready!”
The working day of a fisherman in crossing is twelve hours a day
It is not surprising that today’s youth do not jump into the sea, despite the high salary. By the way, another strength of the fishing industry in the USSR was maritime education, which was closely linked to the needs of the fleets. Today, that feedback has been largely lost. The Wutan’s captain had hired young sailors who couldn’t read a map and young electricians who couldn’t figure out an electrical circuit. One can only wonder: what did they do all the years of study? Nikolai Neustroev answers briefly: they passed the tests, put “ticks” in computer programs. We study the theory, which is very far from actual practice. There should be more practice during the studies of a future sailor than theory, but so far everything is the other way around.
soft focus
However, not all changes in the industry can be described as “for the worse.” First of all, the development of stocks of aquatic biological resources has become more careful, says Konstantin Drevetnyak, general director of the Northern Fishermen’s Union, who has devoted many years to fisheries science. The negative side of the Soviet fisheries was that where the fisheries were conducted by USSR vessels, stocks were often undermined, including in the Barents Sea. Now, thanks to the close cooperation of fishermen, representatives of science and the government, the reserves have been restored.
“At the same time, fishing boats today have become many times more efficient,” says the expert. – If we assess the level of catch now and in the 70-80s of the last century, then with a decrease in the number of vessels, the catch not only did not decrease, but even increased. A modern ship replaces three or four trawlers that worked in Soviet times, for example, on cod, and a crew of 35 people can replace the crew of 150 people necessary for a large ship under the USSR. It can certainly be argued that today the volume of catch per angler has become much larger. Of course, we have not yet caught up with the Icelanders or the Norwegians in this respect. But keep in mind that they not only catch cod, which is a bottom-dwelling species, but also pelagic fish species: herring, mackerel, and blue whiting, while working with fishing gear, catching 700-800 tons of fish per day. by place. We mainly fish with trawls that have lower productivity.
The main change in the life of the industry is that the fishermen suddenly found themselves in the stormy sea of the market, where they must rely only on themselves and obey the harsh law of economic expediency. Previously, the state was in charge of sales. Now the fishermen themselves have to solve this problem, and this, of course, affects the price tags in stores.
– We hope that, nevertheless, the state will begin to face the fishermen, – sums up Konstantin Drevetnyak. – Yes, our work is still hard, we still have to solve many productive and economic problems. But still, the fleet is being updated, new legal mechanisms are being formed that allow the industry to develop further. And I wholeheartedly congratulate my colleagues and all the residents of Murmansk on Fisherman’s Day. Congratulations to those who are in the sea and fish. Congratulations to the families that are waiting for the fishermen of the sea, congratulations to those who depend on the fishermen, because we understand that a fisherman in the sea is three to five people employed on the shore. I wish you all health, happiness and success!
