Tuna Canners Send Buyers a Message With ‘Dolphin-Safe’ Labels

The three biggest players in the nation’s tuna-canning industry are now shipping their product in cans with labels that describe the contents as having been caught through techniques that do not kill or injure dolphins.

The “dolphin-safe” labeling is prominently featured on labels of cans shipped by San Diego-based Van Camp Seafoods, which packages Chicken of the Sea brand tuna, and San Diego-based Bumble Bee Seafoods. StarKist, the Long Beach-based subsidiary of H.J. Heinz Co. also is shipping tuna in cans bearing the “dolphin-safe” label.

Each of the manufacturers’ labels now includes a variation on the “dolphin-safe” theme as well as a drawing of a dolphin. Van Camp, Bumble Bee and StarKist account for 75% of the tuna sold in the U.S., and the U.S. accounts for about half of the worldwide market for tuna. Cans with new labels are gradually replacing older cans on supermarket shelves, according to spokesmen for the companies.

Van Camp, Bumble Bee and StarKist pledged in April not to buy or sell fish that were caught using methods that kill or injure dolphins.

The canners’ agreement to ship only “dolphin-safe” tuna followed years of pressure from environmentalists, who estimated that then-current fishing techniques were killing an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 dolphins a year.

The three canning companies have pledged to no longer process tuna that is caught with gill or drift nets, which indiscriminately kill large numbers of marine animals, including dolphins.

Officials at the San Diego-based American Tunaboat Assn. earlier this year argued that the ban was not needed because of improved fishing techniques that have dramatically reduced the number of dolphins killed by the U.S. tuna boat fleet.

ATA member boats, which use giant purse seiner nets to catch tuna, killed 12,643 dolphins during 1989, far below the 20,500 quota that had been set by the federal government, according to ATA statistics.

Bumble Bee “initially began packaging and labeling the (dolphin-safe) tuna back in mid-summer,” said spokesman Tim Larrick. Cans bearing the new labels, which feature the “Bumble Bee” and a dolphin, are being shipped to all San Diego retail outlets, Larrick said.

San Diego-based Van Camp Seafoods has designed a new label for its Chicken of the Sea brand. The new, red-on-white logo includes wording that alerts consumers to the fact that the tuna was caught without injuring dolphins.

“We selected this new logo so consumers can quickly recognize they are selecting the right (tuna),” said Don George, Van Camp’s marketing director. “Our research shows consumers strongly prefer our new design, and that it enhances the product’s image.”

George said consumers are aware of the “dolphin-safe” label. “There are some consumers who are concerned if (the dolphin-safe language) is not on the label,” George said.

“But it’s been communicated that Van Camp” won’t process tuna caught in a manner that injures or kills dolphins, George said.

StarKist began shipping its “dolphin-safe” cans June 19, said Erik Bloemendaal, the company’s general manager of product quality and communications. “Our label bears a symbol of a dolphin leaping across water with the words ‘no harm to dolphins.’ ”

“The general public has been very much supportive of our dolphin-safe policy,” Bloemendaal said. “They’ve sent us a lot of letters, postcards and things commending us for our leadership on this issue.”