by Mark J. Palmer
International Marine Mammal Project
There is still plenty of time to join the thousands of volunteers all over the country who are sending letters to the Secretary of Commerce William Daley to "Keep the Dolphin-Safe Label Honest."
Daley's decision will determine the fate of the "dolphin safe" tuna label on all cans of tuna in the United States.
The current strong "dolphin safe" standards, developed by Earth Island's International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) in 1990 and adopted by the three major US tuna companies and Congress, prohibits deploying any tuna nets on schools of dolphins. Tuna are known to congregate beneath pods of dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). The switch to "dolphin safe" fishing practices has saved hundreds of thousands of dolphins from drowning in nets.
But in 1997, highly-paid lobbyists from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and other countries - with the support of the Clinton Administration - convinced Congress to allow the Commerce Department to consider adopting a weaker standard for "dolphin safe" tuna.
Sometime in March, 1999 Secretary Daley will rule whether chasing and capturing dolphins with tuna nets causes "significant adverse impacts" on depleted dolphin populations. If Secretary Daley finds that such fishing does cause adverse impacts, the current strong "dolphin safe" standards will remain in place, and consumers may be sure that the tuna they buy was not caught at the expense of dead, injured and harassed dolphins.
But if Secretary Daley caves in to continued pressures from the foreign tuna fleets - and the "free-trade-at-any-cost" mentality of the Clinton Administration - and rules that chasing, harassing, and catching dolphins in tuna nets does not cause significant impacts, the new weaker standard will apply. Tuna caught by netting dolphins could then be falsely labeled "dolphin safe" - just so long as an on-board observer reports that no dolphins died outright or were "seriously injured." Under the weaker standards, fishermen can even mix dolphin-safe and dolphin-deadly tuna on board their vessels.
Evidence is mounting that the capture and release of dolphins is interfering with the recovery of the ETP's dolphin populations. Despite the dramatic decrease in observed dolphins deaths from 100,000 or more annually before 1990 to fewer than 5,000 over the past five years, dolphin populations do not appear to be growing. They have remained stable at very low levels and may even be decreasing. But Secretary Daley may simply ignore the scientific evidence in favor of a political solution favorable to Mexico and other trade partners.
In addition to urging the Commerce Secretary to defend the "dolphin safe" label, IMMP is also working to encourage the three major US tuna companies (which control 90 percent of the US tuna market) to support their 1990 pledge to buy only tuna that is truly "dolphin safe," regardless of the federal standards.
What You Can Do: Urge Secretary of Commerce William Daley [14th St. & Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20230] to keep the current strong "dolphin safe" tuna label and ask that your letter be made part of the official record. Urge the top three tuna companies to maintain their current strong standards for "dolphin safe" tuna. Write: Dennis Mussell, President, (Chicken of the Sea International), Van Camp Seafood Co., Inc., 4510 Executive Dr., No. 300, San Diego, CA 92121, (619) 558-9662, (ext. 1275), fax: (619) 597-4282. Peter Bowen, President and CEO, StarKist Tuna, One Riverfront Place, Newport, Kentucky 41071, (606) 655-5700, fax: (606) 655-5888. Mark Koob, President, BumbleBee Seafoods, Inc., 3990 Rufin Road, San Diego, CA 92123, (619) 715-4000, fax: (619) 715-4355. For further information, contact IMMP at (415) 788-3666 or marinemammal@earthisland.org.
Keep the Dolphin-Safe Tuna Label Honest