PART I 

 STOCK ASSESSMENT BACKGROUND, METHODS, AND COMPLEXITIES 



I . BACKGROUND 



Stock assessment can be considered as the principal scientific tool 

 utilized in fisheries management. As such, stock assessment attempts to 

 develop an understanding of marine ecosystems and the effects of man's 

 activities upon them. The mechanisms that drive marine ecosystems, as well 

 as those that drive fishing activities, if understood, and if properly 

 applied, serve as one means to predict the effects of future activities, 

 and as such can and do contribute to fisheries management decisions. ^^ 



Historically, stock assessment has studied individual populations of 



fish, and the biological basis for management has thus concentrated on the 



(2 3) 

 "single species" approach. ' This approach has assessed the resource 



potential of one or another species of fish that has had commercial value 

 to fishermen or that has promise of future value. For a very long time it 

 was felt that the fishery resources of the ocean were inexhaustible and 

 needed only to be found, harvested, and processed; stock assessment pro- 

 grams have often been designed with the objective of "...increasing the 



* By way of example, specific instances--drawn from the Georges Bank off- 

 shore groundfishery, the development of assessments for Georges Bank, and 

 the history of the haddock fishery in particular--will be highlighted in 

 Part II "The Georges Bank Groundfishery Example." Georges Bank demonstrates 

 nearly all the issues that now face the assessment community under extended 

 jurisdiction. An extremely productive fishing area, Georges is presently 

 being severely overfished, yet has long served as the traditional harvest- 

 ing area for the New England groundfishery. The value of Georges to do- 

 mestic and foreign fleets has been reflected by more extensive assessment 

 history and activity here than has any other area now falling under extended 

 jurisdiction. 



