6 



and economic information. Such an integration, is however, the 

 ultimate end. 



Ill The View of Fisheries Managers 



Fisheries administrators themselves do not have a clear 

 idea of the kind of information they need on fishing communities 

 and the fishing industry. In the recent past, most assumed that 

 they did not need any such information because, in their viev/, 

 their job was "conservation of the fish resources," as if managing; 

 fisheries does not involve regulating the fisherm.en. Even 

 administrators who are convinced that fisheries should be managed 

 for "optimum yield" (as opposed to Maximum Sustained Yield) really 

 do not knov/ what information they need. 



Some fisheries officials and involved accdemics are assum- 

 ing that information should be collected only on catch and effort. 



Thus, they are assuming that the economic, 

 social, cultural and historical information mentioned in PI 94-265 

 will consist of collecting nothing more than statistical data on 

 catches, income, boat size, horsepower of the engine, number of 

 days at sea, etc. Certainly a fisheries manager needs such infor-j 

 mation, but such figures are scarcely the sum total of the data 

 needed. There is little that is social, cultural, or historical 

 about them. 



Other officials of the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 have been talking about the need to be able to measure "socio- 

 economic impact" of fisheries management regulations. Measuring 



I 



