Fifty years on

The 'traditional' approach to providing fisheries management advice through assembly of a population model, estimation of its parameters, identificati on of 'optima' and calculation of sustainable catch limits is briefly summa rised, and its failures noted. An alternative approach, developed fu-st by the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is d escribed. This involves the use of stochastic population models to generate 'data' which are then used in computer simulations of the performances of alternative algorithms for catch limits which do not aim at 'optima' but wh ich satisfy particular sets of management objectives as defined by the mana gement authority.