Foreword: Sequential analysis of the demographic structures revealed by catches is currently the method most used, in particular by work groups working together within the framework of the C.I.E.M., to assess the characteristic parameters of exploited marine populations. The reasons for its success are due to a simple analytical definition, the absence of restrictive hypotheses, and especially a singular property thanks to which the results converge towards the parameters' true values. Due to its quasi-systematic use at the outset of the process leading to exploitation regulations, it is particularly important to take in the method's advantages, limits and rules of usage. This study is, in part, a review of the principal work performed on and around cohort... |