756 



Fishery Bulletin 97(4), 1999 



tion to be considered. However, the number of con- 

 stants to be estimated strongly increases with the 

 length of the time-series of data as 3im»yf) + 2( i ) 

 + 2, with m = number of months, v = number of years, 

 /"^number of fleets, and / = number of length classes. 

 For example, in our study case, with v = 13,/= 2, and 

 ( = 12, the number of constants to be estimated will be 

 104. We think these are a lot of parameters; however, 

 they are easily estimated because all of them are ob- 

 tained by regression or by an analogous technique. 



Acknowledgments 



Some of the initial ideas developed in this paper were 

 inspired by the late John A. Gulland, while F. A.-S. 

 was at the Renewable Resources Assessment Group, 

 London, in 1989. We want to dedicate this contribu- 

 tion to his memory. Our gi-atitude is also extended to 

 S. Rodriguez, L. Capurro, and D. Pauly for their sup- 

 port and valuable comments on an early draft. We 

 also thank three anonymous referees for their valu- 

 able comments. The first author was funded by the 

 National Polytechnic Institute through COFAA, EDD 

 and DEPI. Lastly, we thank Ellis Glazier, CIBNOR, 

 who edited the English-language text. 



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