One of the things that scares me more than long-lining, which targets the top of the food pyramid, is the vacuuming of the ocean for the middle tier -- the medhaden and their relatives. These are fish not caught for human consumption but for processing for their oil and protein. The floating processing boats catch huge shoals of the fish.

So what, we don't eat them, what's the big deal?

Well, lots of sea life that we do eat depends on those little fish that we don't eat. Guess what happens when you deprive say, tuna, of their food source?

Those damned pogie operations need to be reined in. I can't imagine how terrible the harvest must be in countries that have no inclination to environmentalism.

B