Commerce department issues initial finding on tuna/ dolphin

Sea Technology, Jul 1999

The Commerce Department recently announced that the United States will adopt a new dolphin-safe label standard for tuna caught by the encirclement of dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. The new standard is required by law unless the Department's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) can show that catching tuna by encircling dolphins has a significant adverse impact on three depleted dolphin stocks. In its initial finding, the NMFS concluded that there is insufficient evidence to make the "significant adverse impact" call.

The new dolphin-safe standards under the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act will allow the use of the "dolphin-safe" label if the tuna are caught in the presence of dolphins, provided that no dolphins are killed or seriously injured. Previously, only tuna caught when no dolphins were present qualified for the dolphin-safe tuna label on products imported into the United States. A number of environmental organizations, including the Center for Marine Conservation and the World Wildlife Fund supported passage of the legislation.

"Since consumers began to demand dolphin-safe tuna standards in the early 1990s, foreign tuna fishermen have dramatically reduced dolphin deaths and have agreed to these binding international standards," said Terry Garcia, assistant secretary of commerce for oceans & atmosphere and deputy NOAA administrator. "The number of dolphin deaths has dropped dramatically from more than 133,000 in 1986 to less than 2,000 dolphins in 1998. We believe that continued low level of dolphin mortalities will allow depleted stocks to recover to healthy population abundance levels."

The significant reduction in dolphin mortality can be attributed primarily to continued international cooperation through the International Dolphin Conservation Program that is administered under the auspices of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission.

Countries, including the United States, that were voluntarily participating in the program have entered into a binding international agreement limiting dolphin mortalities associated with tuna fishing to less than 5,000 dolphins per year (with additional limits to ensure that stock-specific dolphin mortality will be negligible). Many of these countries strongly supported the U.S. enactment of the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act.

Through 2001, the NMFS will continue this comprehensive study of dolphin populations in the ETP. Scientists will continue to collect data on dolphin population abundance and biology and ascertain whether there are adverse impacts prior to completing the agency's final finding by the end of 2002.

In addition, the NMFS wants to remind people enjoying Florida's coastal waters that it is against federal law to feed and to harass wild dolphins. Since the Memorial Day weekend was the start of the summer tourist season, it is important that people going to the beaches or boating on local waterways be well informed about wild dolphin safety and health concerns and the federal laws in place to protect the animals.

Dolphin feeding and harassment continues to occur throughout the Southeast. The feeding activity has agency officials worried that the average citizen is unaware that offering a dolphin a handout is harmful to the dolphins, dangerous to people, and illegal under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).

Feeding dolphins in the wild is illegal under the MMPA because the activity changes the animals' natural behavior in ways that put them at increased risk of injury or death and may impact their ability or willingness to forage for food.