necessary for successful adoption of new tech- 

 nology; the social, economic, and cultural fac- 

 tors which in the very recent past have im- 

 pinged on the decisions of men to innovate or 

 not; and biographic and motivational infor- 

 mation on men who control the requirements 

 for adoption of new technology. 



Status of Current Information 



Almost none of the information is available 

 to complete the kinds of studies suggested 

 here. 



There are only a few monographs on 

 modern fishing communities and a few books 

 on ancillary topics such as organization of 

 fishing crews and marketing. Of course, the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service compiles 

 information on landings and fish prices. The 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, however, 

 collects little data about the fishing fleet and 

 no information about fishing effort or any 

 other kind of data on social and political in- 

 stitutions or economic performance. The 

 Bureau of the Census has compiled general 

 data on fishing as an occupation and on com- 

 munities where fishing is done. The Census' 

 data are very superficial and are aggregated in 

 ways that give a picture of units no smaller 

 than towns. Existing studies do not give socio- 

 cultural data on the U.S. fishing industry as a 

 whole. 



Methods of Improving Information Base 



The information needed for these studies 

 overlaps a great deal. The first studies to be 

 completed would be indepth studies of impor- 

 tant fishing communities, since all the other 



92 



studies can to some degree draw on the infor- 

 mation generated. It would be reasonable to 

 expect, if 10 to 15 community studies were 

 begun at the same time, a set of monographs 

 could be completed in 2 to 3 years. 



The second study should be a survey of at- 

 titudes towards management proposals and 

 factors necessary for technical innovation. The 

 questions to be included might very well de- 

 pend on the part of the country being dealt 

 with. 



The amount of time such a study would 

 take depends greatly on the number of inter- 

 views needed to obtain statistical reliability. It 

 is estimated that as many as 6,000 interviews 

 would be necessary in the entire coastal region 

 of the United States, and it could take a year or 

 more to collect and tabulate the data. 



Once this information was available, the re- 

 maining studies on innovation and the accept- 

 ability of management alternatives could 

 begin. All of these would involve indepth in- 

 terviews — perhaps at the same locations 

 where the community studies were done. 

 These studies would take another year of in- 

 terviews and analysis. However, these two 

 groups of studies could not be done by the 

 same person in any given area, since the kinds 

 of people who have the analytical tools to 

 analyze costs and benefits of various manage- 

 ment alternatives probably would not be able 

 to concentrate on the very different issues 

 connected with studying technical innovation 

 and impact. 



A group of projects similar to those which 

 are used as examples here could be completed 

 in 4 to 5 years. However, these suggestions 

 and others which may be offered should first 

 be tested and refined by social scientists in 

 order to devise an acceptable research plan. 

 Such a plan should be implemented on both 

 the regional and national level in order to 

 develop data which will be useful to NMFS 

 and the Regional Councils. 



