From Christine Stevens, Society for Animal Protective Legislation
Washington DC
Clarification of Kurt Kleiner’s article on Mexican tuna fishing is vital if
your readers are to comprehend the issues behind the campaign to maintain the
integrity of the “dolphin-safe” label in the US (This Week, 25 May, p 10).
Legislation moving swiftly through the US Senate and House of
Representatives
is designed to modify the current ban on importing tuna caught by cruel fishing
practices. In effect, this legislation allows tuna caught by chasing,
encircling
and killing dolphins to be labelled “dolphin-safe”. But the procedure of using
powerful noisy speedboats to chase dolphins and set mile-long purse seine nets
on them cannot be made safe.
Congressional testimony by cetacean physiologist Albert C. Myrick Jr. shows
the direct harm from the chase and encirclement of dolphins. Myrick concludes:
“1. If the dolphins were under acute stress as early as [the] chase, and since
they died in the nets from no other apparent cause, then it is quite possible
that their deaths in the nets were due to or associated with the acute stress.
2. …it seems likely that those members of the herds that were released
alive were under some degree of stress as well. 3. …If the dolphins died
from stress in the nets, then at least some would be expected to have died
before they reached the nets (and sank unobserved).”
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Myrick’s conclusions are especially significant because the proposed changes
to US law would allow tuna to be imported and labelled “dolphin-safe” provided
there is no observed mortality. Clearly, significant numbers die from
stress during the chase and encirclement—deaths that go undetected and,
therefore, unreported.
If the US legislation is passed, foreign fishing fleets will again chase,
encircle and kill dolphins when they catch tuna and the US market will again be
open to imports of this dolphin-deadly tuna. The American public will be
subjected to consumer fraud and the dolphins will be subjected to stress so
intense that the weaker ones will die. The US must keep the dolphin-safe label
safe for dolphins.
