Ocean Alert -Winter/Spring 1996.
As recently as August of 1995, Portugal's largest tuna importing and processing company,
Comercial e Fabril de Conservas, S.A.(COFACO), still purchased yellowfin tuna from
non-EII-approved, dolphin-unsafe suppliers in Latin America and processed, canned, and sold its
product to European supermarkets. After months of pressure from EII and the economic leverage
created by the refusal of US and European companies to buy from them, COFACO agreed to go
dolphin-safe and to buy tuna only from EII-approved suppliers.COFACO's supply of albacore tuna comes from an Azorean fleet of small fishing boats using the pole and line fishing method. In spring of 1995, the International Monitoring Program (IMP)-Portugal regional coordinator Joao Carlos Neves received reports from Portuguese marine biologists and environmentalists that Azorean fishermen, including albacore tuna fishers, were hunting more than 5,000 dolphins a year with harpoons and lances. Reports indicated that dolphin meat was being used as bait and for human consumption in the Azores. Meanwhile, tuna companies were buying this albacore unaware that the tuna fishermen were killing dolphins. The Azorean government denied the reports of dolphin kills. Without observers on the small tuna boats, there was little proof.
Beginning in August of 1995, Neves and Brenda Killian, Director of the IMP, made a series of trips to the Azores to investigate, with the support of Projecto Delfim, a Portuguese research and advocacy organization for dolphins and whales. Neves and Killian found shops on the Azorean islands of Pico and Faial selling dolphin jawbones and earrings and necklaces made of bottlenose and common dolphin teeth. Tourists on Pico recounted their horror at seeing dolphins being harpooned just a few miles offshore. These were some of the many indications that the killing of dolphins was continuing without any enforcement of the laws prohibiting the slaughter.
Neves and Killian presented their evidence to COFACO and representatives of Bumble Bee Seafoods, Inc.. Bumble Bee immediately warned it would not purchase any tuna from COFACO until EII-approved observers were on board vessels fishing albacore for COFACO. Bumble Bee's cooperation and adherence to the EII dolphin-safe criteria were crucial in negotiating with COFACO. In September, 1995, COFACO stipulated that the company would allow EII-approved observers on board all vessels in the Azorean fleet that supply tuna to COFACO, prohibited captains or crew members on board any of the fleet's vessels from any killing of dolphins, prohibited any harpoons or lances on board the vessels, and prohibited any dolphin meat from being brought on board the vessels for use as bait or for human consumption. COFACO also pledged to assist in the development of an independent observer program. This program began on October 1, 1995.
Killian credits the dolphin-safe conversion of the Azorean fleet to the commitment of Bumble Bee Seafoods and other companies that uphold the current dolphin-safe criteria, "Companies adhering to dolphin-safe policies provide a strong market force to stop the killing of dolphins. Six years ago, we wouldn't have had this leverage. Without the dolphin-safe policies, the slaughter would have continued." Referring to current threats to the definition of dolphin-safe in the US (see article, p. 1), Killian added, "This is one of the important reasons why the current dolphin-safe definition in the US must be upheld -- as a model for other countries."
Neves notes, "The IMP plays a decisive role in the economy of Portuguese tuna canneries.
In fact, to be an EII-approved dolphin-safe company is crucial to the economic health of the
canneries." Of his own work, he says, "Being part of the EII team is a privilege. There is nothing
more rewarding than knowing that there are dolphins swimming out there because of us. Nothing
can beat that feeling."
Ocean Alert -Winter/Spring 1996.
http://www.earthisland.org/immp/closing.html