The foundation and development of Vladivostok Sea Fishing PortOfficially Vladivostok was named as a port in 1862. By that time the first quay had been built. In 1866 there were already two berths, so port became a base where the ships could replenish provision store and acquire essential goods. By early 1900's the total length of berths at the Golden Horn Bay had reached 776m with depth up to 9m. The next turn of the port development began in 1914 when Russia entered in World War I. The main flow of provisions, ammunition and other goods coming from abroad to supply Russian army was routed via Vladivostok and further through Trans-Siberian Railway. Furthermore, in the course of the next period the flow of fishing cargo from Okhotsk and Kamchatka fishing grounds has been sharply increased. For only one 1914 navigation 8,659 tons of fish, 3,5 tons of caviar and 1856 tons of canned food were handled at the port. In 1935 the railroad was opened for service, output of the port berth 3 and 4 doubled, trains with timber, fish, coal didn't have to wait for days in queue to get to single-track railroad leading to the terminal. Ships were discharged faster. Cargo turnover increased and as a result, on November 26, 1937 the USSR government Decision on organization of fishing port of the 1st category in Vladivostok was issued. On March 20, 1938 the first chief of Fishing Port was appointed – Anna Shetinina, the only sea captain woman at that time. But actually the starting date of port operations can be considered as July of 1938 – it was the first time when the ship “Bolshoy Shantar” received all range of services. It delivered several tons of fish in barrels and was bound to take salt for fishing at the Okhotsk Sea. In extremely short period of time, for only 4 years, the biggest in the country refrigerator was constructed. All the berths were turned in deepwater ones and were available to receive not only big reefers but parent ships as well, which allowed to improve cargo handling technology and, consequently, to increase cargo turnover. In 1994 Vladivostok Sea Fishing Port was transformed in a share company. That circumstance allowed to re-arrage work of such a big and complex mechanism as sea port and rapidly respond to constantly changing market situation. In order to eliminate long outage and consequent losses due to sharp shortage of fishing cargo flow, container, steel products, cars, timber, and general cargo handling operations were to be learnt. That required berths to be re-equipped. In 1994 permission was received to start construction of container terminal. And in 1995 first container carrier berthed alongside renewed berths 52-53. Today the Vladivostok Sea Fishing Port is one of the leading port in the Far East well known in Russia as well as in the world. |