Fisheries biology played a fundamental and unusually prominent role in Soviet state planning and diplomacy. Scientists and institutions of scientific research provided the a core component of the Soviet Ministry of Fisheries and their forecasts and recommendations of fishing regulation were a central element (though not the only one) in compiling economic plans for the industry. Internationally, biologists often led Soviet diplomatic delegations tasked with negotiating fishing and other maritime treaties. In the 1980s and the era of perestroika, however, expectations from the state and, crucially, funding patterns changed rapidly. While the collapse of state funding, impoverishment, and widespread emigration of Soviet scientists – particularly in the so-called “basic” sciences such as physics and mathematics – after 1991 is well known, this paper considers how already during perestroika the role science was expected to play in society and as an adjunct to state power was changing radically.