Dr. Ellen Pikitch:

There are lots of different kinds of mackerel in the world. Deputy Pringle asked earlier about the ones in the Humboldt current compared to the ones who are a very different species and have different diets. Our approach is that if a species feeds on plankton its whole life and serves this crucial role during its entire lifecycle, then it is a forage fish, but if it only does it for part of its life it is not. That does not mean one would not want to look at some of these species where for part of their life, they are very important prey species and take a good hard look at them too. We had to be practical when undertaking the task. We had to make decisions on the cut-off points. That was the definition we adopted. The same principles apply. Anything that is really important as food in the ocean is something we should be looking at carefully.