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the offshore fishery has intensified, and as fishing operations have be- 

 come more complex, so has assessment methodology. Yet a science founded 

 during an earlier era of harvesting strategy based on development of new 

 fisheries must ask itself: is the existing method sufficient to under- 

 stand the biological effects of pulse fishing, by-catch, "clear cutting" 

 of the marine environment; and, more importantly, how important is such 

 awareness likely to be in the future? 



And here may be the critical lesson of the haddock example: whereas 

 until 1965 assessments sought to maximize yield and determine potential 

 yields of new fisheries, after 1965 assessments undertook a different and 

 far more difficult task: determining yields to achieve a chosen level of 

 species restoration while concurrently determining maximum al-lowable har- 

 vest to meet this level. Implicit in the earlier route was the long-term 

 nature of harvesting effects on stocks; implicit in the situation today is 

 the need to come to critical short-term decisions so that chosen stocks can 

 survive. With extended jurisdiction now a United States law, the American 

 assessment community has, for the first time, the chance of seeing manage- 

 ment decisions made with primary respect to biological theory. 



In conclusion, analysis of the Georges Bank haddock fishery indicates 

 that assessments have traditionally suffered from (1) lack of funding; 

 (2) political rather than biological management decisions; and (3) a sudden 

 increase in data requirements that arose from the rapid introduction of 

 foreign fisheries off the United States Coast. 



Recent extension of jurisdiction by the United States to 200 miles 

 carries hopes that assessmentscan now be developed according to controlled 



