Anchovy can be a difficult fish stock to understand. It is at the bottom of the food chain so can prosper if larger predators disappear. It is highly affected by natural changes in the sea habitat, in food (plants and micro-organisms), climate and currents and is apparently affected by global warming too - with anchovy now being fished in Cornwall. It reproduces rapidly and congregates in huge schools. Normally it is quite resilient to overfishing. In 2004/2005 the stock in the Bay of Biscay totally collapsed, as it has done in the past elsewhere. A fishing moritorium has been imposed since the summer of 2006 although stocks are said to have now recovered. Our own anchovy is fished in the Mediterranean where the main problem is the use of vast amounts of anchovy to fatten farmed bluefin tuna.