WASHINGTON – The HSUS is calling on the Bush Administration to
heed warnings on depleted dolphin populations found in a
Commerce Department report as the deadline for a decision on
whether to weaken the familiar dolphin-safe label on canned
tuna approaches.
The Secretary of Commerce has until the end of the year to
determine whether the tuna fishery in the Eastern Tropical
Pacific Ocean is having a significant adverse impact on dolphin
populations. If, as expected, the finding is “no significant
adverse impact,” the Commerce Department will weaken the
dolphin-safe label by broadening the definition of dolphin safe
to include tuna caught by fishing methods that include chasing
and encircling dolphins.
“A no significant adverse impact finding would be contrary
to the scientific evidence presented in the report by the
government’s own scientists,” said Kitty Block, special counsel
to the HSUS’ United Nations and treaties department. “The
Humane Society of the United States encourages the Commerce
Secretary to base this decision on science rather than
politics, in which case there is clearly only one correct
decision – to maintain the current standards for the
dolphin-safe label.”
The Mexican government has been lobbying for this change to
give the Mexican tuna industry access to the lucrative American
market, which currently has the highest standards in the world
for protecting dolphins who were dying by the hundreds of
thousands in tuna nets before boycotts and trade embargoes
forced changes in the fishery in the late 1980s and early 1990s
and American law blocked imports of dolphin-deadly tuna.
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 dolphin deadly 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. A
lengthy legislative and legal battle ensued, with dolphins
receiving a temporary reprieve as the Commerce Department
complied with a Congressional mandate to develop a study of
dolphin populations before changing the criteria for using the
dolphin safe label.
Scientists completed that report this summer but the
Commerce Department has yet to release it, undoubtedly because
it demonstrates ongoing concern about dolphin populations.
Earth Island Institute obtained the report and released it
late yesterday. Primary results of the report show:
• Northeastern offshore spotted dolphins are at 20% and
eastern spinner dolphins at 35% of their pre-fishery levels
• One model predicts recovery in 78 years for northeastern
offshore spotted dolphins and in 65 years for eastern spinner
dolphins. A second model, equally supported by the data,
predicts that neither stock would recover in 200 years.
• The tuna fishery is cited as one of the major reasons for
this lack of recovery in dolphin populations. The tuna fishery
is responsible for deaths caused by separating calves from
mothers and stress resulting from chasing and encircling
dolphins.
“A finding of no significant adverse impact is simply
impossible based on these findings,” said Block.
