[bulletbob]

I was never one to place all the blame on commercials for a species getting scare. Its anyone that eats fish no matter how or where its caught.. Over the years I have noticed a trend however.. certain species decade after decade went pretty much unnoticed, and the populations were always stable..
then something happens- a species becomes wildly popular for whatever reason-Its fashionable to eat it, a hot new recipe that some chef dreams up, its super healthy, all the cool hip people are eating it, etc etc...

For years and years stores could not give Bluefish away.. People refused to buy it... Then at some point, I noticed big ugly grey Bluefish fillets on ice in all the stores, and piles of smaller blues in the round as well. people started buying it. Then not long after, we started seeing drastic drops in numbers of Bluefish... Same with Atlantic mackerel.. No one wanted them, and they there every year by the millions... Then the sushi craze hit a few decades ago, and mackerel were in big demand by sushi chefs and consumers for Saba, and other preparations... Then we all saw what happened to the Mackerel... I hope one day some big celebrity chef decides that dogfish and Ocean Pout are the next "hip" trend in the culinary world, and creates a huge demand, and that summer flounder and sea bass are out, and are no longer considered worthy species for their "creations".... bob