318 
Fishery Bulletin 108(3) 
within NMFS (Witherell 5 ). We assert that as fishery 
scientists and management advisors begin to explore 
the use of risk analysis, that the PSA is one approach 
that could demonstrably help managers to make more 
informed decisions, particularly in instances where data 
are limited. 
Acknowledgments 
We thank M. Key for her assistance in evaluating the 
vulnerability of stocks targeted by the California near- 
shore groundfish and coastal pelagic fisheries. We also 
thank the internal reviewers at NMFS who provided 
helpful editorial comments, including S. Branstet- 
ter, K. Brewster-Geisz, D. DeMaster, J. Ferdinand, B. 
Harman, B. Karp, A. Katekaru, J. Kimmel, A. MacCall, 
J. Makaiau, J. McGovern, R. Methot, M. Nelson, C. Pat- 
rick, F. Pflieger, P. Steele, A. Strelcheck, G. Tromble, and 
J. Wilson. And lastly, we thank the three anonymous 
reviewers who provided insight from an international 
perspective and identified areas of the manuscript need- 
ing further clarification of the technical details of our 
analysis. 
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