Marine Resources Company: Background
Jim Talbot was the owner of Cold Storage after his father, Arch Talbot retired in the late 1950's. Talbot had seen success in the Pacific Northwest and began to seek expansion for Cold Storage during the 1970's. When evaluating prospects for expansion, Talbot became interested in partnering with the Soviet Union.
During the 1970's, the Soviet Union had already been fishing close to US shores, making the pontential relationship seem convenient. Most importantly, Talbot felt that a partnership with the Soviet Union would be beneficial since they possesd the largest deep water fishing fleet in the world. In attempts to establish this relationship, Talbot reached out to Alexander Ishkov, who eventually expressed interest in a United States and Soviet Union partnership.
While Talbot was initially intrigued by a partnership with the Soviet Union for economic reasons, he began to see other potential benefits. During Talbot's first few visits to Moscow, he became interested in Russian culture and history. His trips allowed him to see the interworkings of Soviet society and believed that society could be transformed if exposed to Western business practices and culture. By having a successful economic partnership with the Soviet Union, Talbot saw the potential to make a big impact on a country that he saw suffering from material hardship and insularity.
The first step to establishing a partnership with the Soviet Union was to contact the Fishing Minister Alexander Ishkov. After recieving a positive response from Ishkov, Talbot began the process of getting US permits. While Talbot and Ishkov had partnered together to develop the MRC, the new business could not start operations until obtaining permits from the US government, which proved to be more difficult then anticipated.