US–soviet fisheries research during the cold war: data legacies

Abstract

In the 1950s, the Soviet Union expanded the range of its fisheries operations into international water traditionally fished by American vessels. In the USA, government officials and fisheries experts alike expressed concerns that the Soviets were overfishing Atlantic stocks, or even potentially engaging in off-shore espionage. Despite these fears, members of the US fisheries management community reached out and engaged with their Soviet counterparts directly. This initial communication led to a series of collaborations between US and Soviet scientific agencies aimed at developing a deeper understanding of marine ecosystems and improving the sustainability of international fisheries. The joint US–USSR research efforts beginning in the 1960s laid the foundation for continued cooperative studies through the 1980s and into the post-Soviet era. This paper uses historical records from the US National Archives and data products currently available on the web to examine the legacy of this Cold War cooperative research program. These materials demonstrate how American and Soviet scientists collaborated to generate and describe data on fisheries. It also considers how they negotiated recordkeeping and data management activities across radically different governmental structures, while also navigating the transition to digital recordkeeping and data exchange. This case offers perspective on the preservation of at-risk ecological records and the continued value of these data in our contemporary world.