U.S. Changes Meaning of Dolphin Safe Tuna Label

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http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2003/2003-01-06-06.asp

 

 

U.S. Changes Meaning of Dolphin Safe Tuna Label

By Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, January 6, 2003 (ENS) - The Bush administration has decided that

a controversial fishing method involving encircling pods of dolphins with mile

long nets to catch tuna has " no significant adverse impact " on the dolphins.

Conservation groups say the determination, which will allow tuna from Mexico to

be sold in the U.S. under a " dolphin safe " label, could spell disaster for

imperiled dolphin populations.

On December 31, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced that

after new research, it had concluded that the tuna purse seine industry practice

of encircling dolphins to catch tuna has " no significant adverse impact on

dolphin populations in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. " The announcement

came less than a month after a conservation group released an unpublished NMFS

report indicating that thousands of dolphins, particularly baby dolphins, are

still dying in tuna nets in the eastern tropical Pacific.

The Commerce Department's Dolphin Safe tuna label. (Logo courtesy NMFS)The New

Year's Eve finding cleared the way for tuna caught under the terms of a binding

multilateral environmental agreement, particularly in waters off the coast of

Mexico, to be imported into the United States with the dolphin safe label, so

long as no dolphins are injured or killed during the set in which the tuna are

caught.

" One of our main goals is to reduce dolphin deaths and to conserve living marine

resources, while at the same time maintaining the sustainability of the Eastern

Tropical Pacific tuna fishery under the international agreement, " said NMFS

director Bill Hogarth. " This agreement has reduced dolphin mortality from

hundreds of thousands of dolphins to approximately 2,000 dolphins per year. "

In 1991, NMFS implemented the " dolphin safe " labeling system as a way of

reducing dolphin deaths due to tuna fishing. Under the initial label criteria,

tuna harvested in the Eastern Tropical Pacific could be labeled " dolphin safe "

only if no nets were intentionally set on dolphins during the fishing trip.

Under the December 31 decision, the criteria have been changed so that tuna

harvested in the Eastern Tropical Pacific by large purse seine vessels can be

labeled dolphin safe even if dolphins are encircled, so long as an on board

observer certifies that no dolphins are killed or seriously injured during the

set in which the tuna were caught.

NMFS Director Bill Hogarth during a wetlands restoration day in Baltimore

Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Bill Folsom, courtesy NMFS) " The dolphin safe label

was developed as a way to help protect and conserve dolphins, " said Hogarth.

" With this decision, Americans can continue to have confidence that when they

purchase tuna with the dolphin safe label that dolphins are being protected. "

But conservation groups warn that the relaxed requirements for dolphin safe

labeling could lead to the deaths of thousands more dolphins each year.

" The whole point of the 'dolphin safe' label is to give consumers a choice of

tuna that wasn't caught by netting dolphins, " said William Snape, vice president

for law and litigation at Defenders of Wildlife, one of several groups planning

to challenge the NMFS decision in court. " We have great confidence that the

courts will strike down this blatantly illegal decision, " Snape added.

In the 1950s, fishers discovered that yellowfin tuna in the Eastern Tropical

Pacific could be found beneath schools of dolphin. For years after the

discovery, the predominant tuna fishing methods in the region involved

encircling schools of dolphins with fishing nets to trap the tuna concentrated

below.

Hundreds of thousands of dolphins died because of this fishing method. Under the

International Dolphin Conservation Program (IDCP), fishers were required to

change their purse seine fishing methods, and since the 1980s, confirmed dolphin

mortalities have dropped to about 2,000 per year.

Dolphins caught in tuna nets. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)Critics of tuna

fishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific say the actual number of dolphins harmed

is probably much higher. A 96 page report by NMFS scientists, made public last

month, found that the fishing methods favored by commercial tuna fisheries in

Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and other nations may stress dolphins, even when

they are not caught in nets, or when they are released from nets alive.

Many of the region's tuna fishers chase down schools of dolphins in order to

target the tuna on which the dolphins feed, than encircle the tuna with nets

that can also ensnare dolphins. At least six to 10 percent of eastern spinner

dolphin mortality, and 10 to 15 percent of northeastern offshore spotted dolphin

mortality, is caused by the separation of baby dolphins from their mothers

during the chasing and netting process, the report found.

" Despite considerable scientific effort by fishery scientists, there is little

evidence of recovery, and concerns remain that the practice of chasing and

encircling dolphins somehow is adversely affecting the ability of those depleted

stocks to recover, " the study said.

" The Bush administration's claim that chasing and netting of dolphins is 'safe'

for dolphins is fraudulent and must be overturned by the courts, " said David

Phillips, director of the Earth Island Institute's International Marine Mammal

Project, which released the unpublished NMFS report.

A diver from the environmental group Greenpeace works to free a dolphin trapped

underwater in a fishing net. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)Arguing that the

decision by NMFS ignores two federal court rulings against a similar decision,

made in 1999 by former Commerce Secretary William Daley, Phillips warned that,

" We will be seeing the Bush administration in court, as this decision is clearly

illegal. "

U.S. participation in the Eastern Tropical Pacific tuna fishery has decreased

over the years while foreign participation in the fishery has continued to

increase. U.S. tuna fishermen no longer set nets on dolphins, and the major U.S.

tuna processors - StarKist, Bumble Bee, and Chicken of the Sea - have pledged

they will not buy tuna caught by chasing and netting dolphins.

In the mid-1990s, Mexico threatened action against the United States on the

grounds that the U.S. dolphin-protection laws violate the free trade rules of

the World Trade Organization.

Clinton administration officials backed the Mexican government and advocated not

only for opening U.S. markets to Mexico's tuna but also for changing the

definition of dolphin safe to allow tuna caught by methods that harm dolphins to

be sold under the dolphin safe label.

The Commerce Department, which overseas NMFS, was required by Congress to

conduct research and make a finding regarding the impact of the tuna purse seine

fishery on depleted dolphin stocks in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, before

changing the criteria for using the dolphin safe label.

The eastern spinner dolphin, one of the species impacted by tuna fishing in the

Eastern Pacific, is estimated to be at about 35 percent of its historic numbers,

and is designated as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. (Two

photos courtesy NMFS)The agency's decision, just meeting the December 31

deadline, was based on a review of the results of this required research,

information obtained under the existing International Dolphin Conservation

Program (IDCP) and other relevant information.

Mexican officials said the new definition of dolphin safe helps insure that the

U.S., Mexico, and South American countries will continue to work together to

protect dolphins.

" The Mexican Government welcomes this decision that will assure the continuation

of the Agreement of the International Program for Dolphin Conservation, one of

the most important fishery conservation agreements, " said a spokesperson from

the Mexican embassy in Washington DC.

NMFS Director Hogarth said that the U.S. plans to seek better enforcement of

IDCP requirements and promote a package of improvements to the program,

including new requirements on the growing number of smaller tuna fishing vessels

plying the region's waters.

NMFS said it will continue to conduct about $3 million per year worth of

research and monitoring on depleted dolphin stocks. Working with the IATTC and

the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, the agency will conduct annual reviews of the

effectiveness of the IDCP and continue to develop conservation measures to

recover depleted dolphins and maintain tuna stocks.

The northeastern offshore spotted dolphin is at just 20 percent of its historic

levels.In the meantime, several conservation groups plan to ask the courts to

overturn the NMFS decision.

" The Bush administration is selling out dolphins in order to reward Mexican tuna

millionaires, " said Phillips. " If the Secretary's decision is left intact,

20,000 to 40,000 dolphins each year will be sacrificed, and falsely labeled

Mexican tuna will be on the U.S. market as 'dolphin safe.' We cannot allow that

to occur. "

More information regarding the dolphin safe tuna program is available at:

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/PR2/Tuna_Dolphin/tunadolphin.html

 

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