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Given the uncertainties that such judgments must reflect, even with 

 an elaborate and expensive research program, and given the changing needs 

 upon assessments to now manage stocks for restoration, priorities should 

 be established which reflect the management goals of extended jurisdiction. 

 Many assessment needs may be satisfied initially by provision of better 

 data for existing methods. Before substantial costs are incurred to improve 

 on the current level of accuracy, a number of recommendations should be con- 

 sidered. Expansion of research programs would appear inevitable in the 

 light of expanded management goals over time, but the form of that expansion 

 and the interests it serves should be selected from the list of possibilities 

 that result from the needs identified in this report. 



The recommendations on the following pages are addressed to the newly- 

 created Regional Councils, which were established as a means to decentralize 

 fisheries management into regional authorities sensitive to specific issues 

 unique to chosen regions. As this report has indicated stock assessment is 

 highly dependent upon chosen goals. Too complex for universal application, 

 always subject to error, and increasingly expensive, the wish to understand 

 the entire marine ecosystem must be tempered by the need for rapid decisions 

 concerning stock restoration and fleet revitalization. 



