those hypotheses. The known mortality mechanisms of pre-recruit fish and their 

 stochastic nature implies that recruitment predictions of high accuracy are not 

 likely for any reasonable cost. Therefore, fishery managers will need to 

 utilize strategies which, on the average, will optimize benefits as opposed to 

 looking for precise predictions on an annual basis. One possible area of "high 

 payoff" research for modest cost might be an in-depth review of patterns of 

 stock recruitment data for major species groups on a global scale as a basis 

 for a first approximation of relative potential risk of fishery collapse. 



The panel discussed, in general, the relative merits of dynamic versus 

 static models in fishery applications but came to no firm conclusions other 

 than each approach had advantages and disadvantages depending on the available 

 data base. For a given data base, the question was posed as to the relative 

 effectiveness of dynamic versus static models for uncovering counterintiutive 

 characteristics of complex systems. Here again, comparison of results among 

 different ecosystems of generally comparable structure seems to be a worthwhile 

 and prudent approach. 



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