B. Scope of the Report 



The scope of this Report is limited in several ways. First, it is 

 restricted to economic information requirements; it does not consider 

 biological, ecological or sociological information needs. Second, it does 

 not attempt to specify all economic data needs; only those which can be 

 directly related to the information requirements of the Act. Third, the 

 Report focuses on the additional economic data needs of the New England and 

 Pacific Regional Councils.^ This geographic restriction was necessitated 

 by available time and personnel. 



The Report does not address conceptual or modeling issues. While 

 very real issues do exist in these areas, a more pressing problem with 

 fisheries is that the economic data base is inadequate to implement even 

 the simplest models or to permit empirical tests of concepts and models. 



Finally, the Report addresses long run issues and is not concerned 

 with the immediate economic data needs for formulating Preliminary Manage- 

 ment Plans (PMP) . Thses plans must be completed in such a short time 

 horizon that there is little that can be done to augment the existing data 

 base in time for its inclusion in the Preliminary Management Plans. ^ Given 

 the restricted scope of this Report, it should be recognized that it is not 

 a comprehensive statement of economic data needs in U.S. fisheries policy. 



^In the interest of simplicity the terms "New England" and "Pacific" 

 Fisheries will be used to denote fisheries under the New England and Pacific 

 Regional Councils, respectively. 



^Section 201 Cg) of the Act specifies that the Secretary of Commerce 

 shall prepare Preliminary Management Plans for fisheries in which foreign 

 participation has been requested and for which no fishery management plan 

 will be prepared by the Regional Councils before March 1, 19 77. 



