I  have an idea for a good arcticle on your excellent p rogram, which to
my mind, exemplifies the best of Canadian jounalism, in that it tackles
a wide variety of current, controversial issues, pulls no punches, and
is not guilty of sensationalism.  A group of fishermen  in Nova Scotia
have formed a plucky little organiztion called the Canadian Ocean
Habitat Protection Society, dedicated towards protecting  endangered
marine habitats off our east coast, especially those which probably
benefit the groundfish industry, by providing  habitats suitable for
protecting and nurturing  juvenile fish.  There is also a strong
conservation componant in their organization.  Their primary concerns
center around the once-common , but virtually unstudied deep-water coral
ecosystems which have been nearly destroyed by dragging and trawling
fleets, domestic and especially foreign, which continue to fish coral
stands, assisted by new gear types that are not so easily damaged by the
sharp, broken bases of the coral.  These fragile, beautiful, ancient,
and highly productive ecosystems would be considered a true national
treasure, if they occured on land, and are the strongest argument there
is, in favor of extending the national park system to include protected
marine sites, that would not only preserve esamoples of exeptional
ecosystems, but very probably benifit the groundfish industry
substantially, by providing  the type of habitat most benificial for
juvenile fish (as above).  Yet, DFO has bluntly stated that their is "no
reason to connect the corals to the surrounding  ecology", and have
refused to help CHOPS research them, although they made some encouraging
yet very non-commital  comments regarding  future research when an
extremely active group, the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre, put out
a good scientific report recently, compiling  what IS  known about the
corals (A  well-done, if slightly dry, study, which contains enough
tantalizing  information to indicate immediate research is badly
needed.  It also supports the claims made by CHOPS. I can send you a
copy, if you like, as well as other information).  There are plenty of
photographs of coral available (about 10 species), as well as models of
coral habitat assemled by Derrick Jones and Sanford Atwood, the two
wonderfully colorful characters (probably quite telegenic as well!).
Also, an incredible film shot off the coast of Maine, of an actual coral
ecosystem, can be easily had.  The CTV late news (National!)  just aired
a good arcticle on the topic a few minutes ago, so this is now the type
of  "breaking", topical, controversial issues W5 so successfully
tackles.  This is important, ecologically, and probably economically (if
the habitats which nurture healthy fish stocks are preserved, and given
a chance to regenerate,  this would  pemit the decimated stocks to
recover, albiet on a time-scale many fishermen and fishing companies are
not likely to be wildly enthusiastic about- nevertheless, we must begin
now, to ensure the long--term survival of the groundfish industry:  it
should be obvious to most critical observers by now, that simply
reducing the amount of cod and other stocks caught, is not sufficient in
itself, to regenerate these stocks:  habitat protection is also most
probably vital.  However, there are no immediate plans to do the kind of
research which would tell us which habitats we should be protecitng, and
how much of them are needed, to preserve the industry for future
generations.  The type of hard-hitting , high-standard journalism (and
i'm NOT just buttering you up- your program is effective!!) you do could
really help, and could result in some action by DFO, big fishing
companies eager to score PR points, and large environmental groups,
which have not yet taken up this "cause", probably because it doesn't
have a high enough public profile until now.  Sorry to have been so
verbose: it is very late, and i am not  "100%".  Derrick Jones's Phone #
is 902-745-2950 (I hope!), and Sanford Atwood's # is 745-3475.   Mark
Jones is the person to spea with at the Ecology action Centre
(902-429-2202), and Derrick Davis, whom either Jones caould put you in
contack with, would also be a good person to speak with.  I realizethis
is a lot of material to cover in a single arcticle, but perhaps you
could tackle the fight for a habitat-based fisheries management system
(vs numerical models outdated for some time now) in one program, and
have a follow-up focusing on the endangered corals.   Or, you could
tackle t fight for protecting  exeptional marine habitats in general
(there is an organization in New Brunswick whose names and number i can
get for you, dedicated to this), then focus specifically othe corals in
a follow-up.  You could tie-in the mis-management of east-coast
fisheries in general, and the destruction of habitat  which trawling and
dragging  fishing methods produce, or even the way Canadian government
policies have squeezed the small, independant fishermen into an
ever-smaller  corneof the industry, in favor of large fishing
companies, thus turning the entire fishery into a predominantly
capital-intensive, instead of job-intensive industry, effecively
shifting the profits out of local economies, and into the pockets of
wealthy investors (sorry my bias is showing here, but the number of
families the fishery supports is related not only to stocks, but also to
fishing methods- one factory trawler employing 30 fishermen, can
displace the jobs of a great many people operating much smaller vessals,
yet governmental policies have