Dr. Ellen Pikitch:

The list is getting long and I will forget the questions, even though I am taking notes.

On the Deputy's first question on whether a conservation case could be made about 90% of forage fish being used for fish meal and fish oil and only 10% being available for direct consumption, I do not think it is a conservation issue but a food security one. The task force decided to draw the line and give advice on the number of forage fish it was safe to take out of the sea in terms of protection of the ecosystem. We stopped there. On what one does with the fish after that, there are a lot of very important questions, but as a task force, we decided not to go there in terms of making recommendations. We reiterated several times in the report that there was a food security issue because much of the fish meal was given for aquaculture and livestock production. There is a conversion ratio - to produce 1 lb of farmed salmon it takes 3 lb to 5 lb of forage fish. One is taking 3 lb to 5 lb of perfectly edible fish to turn it into 1 lb of edible fish; therefore, there is a net ecological loss of food as a result of the way the product is being used. That is something which needs attention.