The Winter/Spring 1995 Ocean Alert (formerly the Dolphin Alert) is an Earth Island Institute publication.
Our international monitoring program (IMP) has been continuing its mission to promote sustainable and dolphin-safe fishing methods. This first-of-its-kind independent monitoring program investigates tuna fishers, packers, and importers to ensure the reliability of dolphin-safe labeling. In addition, IMP is attempting to spotlight countries with tuna fleets that continue to kill marine mammals by using driftnets or purse-seine nets.
In September 1994, IMP Director Brenda Killian spent two weeks conducting initial investigations into Taiwan's tuna industry to determine if it abides by the driftnet moratorium. In the past, Taiwan's fishing industry has used primarily driftnets, but in 1992 the United Nations passed a global resolution banning the use of all high-seas driftnets longer than 1.5 miles. Killian met with industry and government officials to discuss actions taken by the government to uphold the driftnet moratorium. She discovered that the effort to close all international markets to driftnet-caught fish is paying off; the use of driftnets in Asia is disappearing.
In Mexico, the tuna fishing fleet relies heavily on the purse-seine method to catch tuna. IMP continues to investigate canneries, storage facilities, and vessels to verify that no dolphin-unsafe tuna is sold to importers in Europe and elsewhere. IMP also encourages all Mexican canneries to become dolphin-safe. The number of Mexican purse-seine vessels that are not setting nets on dolphins is increasing. Because the international markets for dolphin-unsafe tuna are closing, tuna fishers have an incentive to sell their dolphin-safe catch to the EII-approved canneries that IMP monitors in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador.
IMP's monitors continue to be active in the Philippines as well, working directly with fishers to ensure that their methods are dolphin-safe. These fishers often use fish aggregating devices called payaos which attract tuna. For the past two years, the monitoring program has placed observers aboard vessels to investigate the presence of dolphins around payaos and to ensure that fishers do not intentionally set nets around any dolphins. IMP's monitors also conduct classes on the boats to educate the fishing crews about the role of dolphins in the marine ecosystem and how to safely release any that may become trapped in the nets accidentally.
IMP's efforts to encourage more countries around the world to adopt dolphin-safe policies and fish in ways that do not harm marine mammals is a major undertaking. "It is encouraging that representatives from the tuna industry around the world, especially in countries like Mexico and Taiwan that were leaders in using methods that are dolphin-unsafe, are now opening their doors to us and cooperating with our monitoring program. As a result of our efforts, the dolphin mortality rate has decreased by over 90 percent since IMP began," said Killian. The work that began in Thailand and the Philippines now covers Costa Rica, France, Spain, Italy, Ivory Coast, Mauritius, Portugal, Senegal, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Taiwan, Mexico, Turkey, and China. Site investigations are also planned for South Africa, Brazil, Venezuela, Namibia, Chile, Papua New Guinea, and Iran. Killian calls it part of the effort to ensure that dolphin-safe policies are upheld and markets for dolphin-unsafe tuna are closed.
Ocean Alert - Winter / Spring 1995.
http://www.earthisland.org/immp/immp5.html