U.S. implements new dolphin-safe standards

Since 1959, an estimated 7 million dolphins have been killed as a result of tuna fishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.

January 4, 2000
Web posted at: 1:00 p.m. EST (1800 GMT)

By Environmental News Network staff

The tuna fishing industry is snagged in yet another entanglement.

Backed by the Clinton administration and a handful of conservationists, the U.S. issued an interim final rule Monday for a set of standards for dolphin-safe tuna that allow the encirclement method of fishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. As long as no dolphins are killed or injured by the encirclement method, the tuna can be labeled dolphin-safe.

In addition to allowing vessels from the U.S. to set their purse seine nets on dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, the interim final rule also changes the standard for the use of "dolphin-safe" labels on tuna products, and establishes a tuna-tracking program to ensure adequate tracking and verification of tuna harvested there.

"People out there killing dolphins can actually label [their tuna] as dolphin-safe," said Mark Palmer, a spokesperson for the Earth Island Institute's International Marine Mammal Project.

Encirclement fishing has been banned in the United States since 1994. Nevertheless, the practice was continued by foreign fisheries, including Mexico and Venezuela.

Earth Island Institute and the Humane Society claim that encirclement methods harass, injure and potentially kill dolphins that are accidentally entangled in fishing nets, whether or not any dolphins are brought on board of the ship.

Allowing the new dolphin-safe standards could encourage encirclement fishing practices to continue and to grow, the groups say. They are backed by leading tuna producers and retailers — among them StarKist, Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea — that abide by a dolphin-safe standard where no dolphins are encircled during the fishing process.

"Three million dolphins are encircled in the Eastern Tropical Pacific each year," said Humane Society biologist Naomi Rose. Tuna usually swim below schools of dolphin, Rose explains. "[The encirclement fishing method] exploits this tight association, using dolphins to identify where tuna are and entangling them in the same nets."

Although tightened regulations have dramatically decreased the number of dolphins killed since the late 1950s, from a high of about 133,000 a year in 1986 to fewer than 2,000 in 1998, Rose and others are concerned with the "hidden mortality of dolphins" resulting from encirclement.

"Encirclement represses dolphins' reproductive output to a point that they are not recovering from the massive mortality that took place from 1959 to 1990," she said. Several scientific studies by both the National Marine Fisheries Service and individual groups attest to the fact that the dolphins are not replenishing their population, Rose said.

In 1998, tuna-harvesting countries in the Eastern Tropical Pacific reached an agreement to provide further protection for dolphins during encirclement fishing. Releasing dolphins that were caught in fishing nets before they were brought on board was part of the improved protection plan.

The signing nations agreed that if the U.S. amended previous import restrictions, the countries would enter a binding agreement to continue dolphin protections. The International Dolphin Conservation Program Act, which includes a requirement that the U.S. government come up with a dolphin-safe label, was passed on March 3, 1999.

The Center for Marine Conservation applauds the new dolphin-safe standards as an incentive for foreign fisheries to improve encirclement practices.

"By changing the definition and implementing this agreement, there is strong incentive for nations to ban together to eliminate dolphin mortality," said Nina Young, a research scientist for the center.

More than 2,000 comments were received on the proposed rule. Comments on the final interim rule must be received by 5 p.m. PST on April 3. It will become effective Feb. 2, 2000.

Send written comments to J. Allison Routt, NMFS Southwest Region, Protected Resources Division, 501 W. Ocean Blvd., Suite 4200, Long Beach, California 90802-4213. Comments may also be faxed to (562)980-4027. E-mailed comments will not be accepted.

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