Deal Signed as Dolphins Die
by Mark J. Palmer
Int'l. Marine Mammal Project

On May 21, eight tuna-fishing nations meeting in Washington, DC signed an International Agreement to "protect" dolphins. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright represented the US government at the signing. Ironically, the signing coincided with the release of new figures showing that dolphin deaths on the increase in the tuna fishery.

Earth Island Institute immediately dubbed the agreement the "Dolphin Death Pact." David Phillips, Director of Earth Island Institute's International Marine Mammal Project stated: "This new agreement is a con job that allows tuna fishing nations to double the current dolphin kill. There is no mechanism to reduce dolphin deaths, despite the specific Congressional mandate to do so."

Dolphin deaths in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) tuna fishery reached an all-time low in 1996 with 2,547 dolphins documented as killed. In 1997, however, in anticipation of the signing of the new Dolphin Death Pact, the fishery killed at least 3,000 dolphins. Figures released by the InterAmerican Tropical Tuna Commission document the first increase in dolphin mortality in more than ten years.

In 1990, Earth Island joined with the three major US tuna processors to announce that only dolphin-safe tuna (tuna caught without deliberately encircling schools of dolphins with deadly nets) would be imported and sold in the US Since that time, dolphin deaths have decreased dramatically from more than 100,000 annually to less than 3,000 in 1996.

The signing of the International Agreement will allow the Clinton Administration to lift the US embargoes against dolphin-deadly tuna. Earth Island Institute (EII) strongly opposes the lifting of the US embargo against dolphin-deadly tuna and is investigating legal channels to head off the accelerated dolphin slaughter implicit in the International Agreement.

The agreement falls far short of requirements under international law and the US Marine Mammal Protection Act to: reduce mortality of dolphins to levels approaching zero; decrease the netting of non-target fish; and provide an enforceable and "legally binding agreement" (Spring '98 EIJ).

"Mexico and the Clinton Administration have decided that trade in tuna products is more important than the lives of dolphins," charged EII's Phillips. "While the governments can now claim to have an international agreement, the reality is that they are letting the slaughter of dolphins continue."

CORRECTION:
In the Spring EIJ, the article "Bad for Dolphins, Bad for Tuna" included the statement that: "Although it is well-known that fishing in a 'dolphin safe' manner causes a large 'by-catch' of non-target species...."

In fact, by-catch in the ETP tuna fishery is one of the lowest in the world; Earth Island contends that opponents of dolphin safe fishing techniques are using the by-catch issue to claim that protection of dolphins will automatically harm other non-target species, such as sharks, billfish, and juvenile tuna. Earth Island believes that by-catch issues need to be addressed separately on a case by case basis. Unfortunately, the new International Agreement does not provide specific steps to reduce by-catch, despite the fact that by-catch reduction was a major goal of the negotiations.