House Alters ‘Dolphin-Safe’ Tuna Standard

Six years after Congress banned imported tuna caught by methods that kill dolphins, the House on Wednesday passed a bill that would lift the embargo and redefine the “dolphin-safe” standard stamped on virtually every can of tuna fish sold in America.

The bill, which passed the House, 316 to 108, would rewrite dolphin-protection laws credited with decreasing dolphin mortality from 100,000 a year to 3,600. Although it is endorsed by the Clinton administration, the legislation faces a likely filibuster in the Senate, where Democrats Barbara Boxer of California and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware have promised to block it.

The environmental community is as divided over the legislation as the lawmakers. “I truly believe this will save dolphins,” said Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the San Diego Republican who co-sponsored the bill.

“It’s a sham,” said Rep. Pete Stark (D-Hayward). “Nothing in this bill would prevent severely injured or over-exhausted dolphins from being dumped back into the sea to die.”

Current law bans the import of tuna caught by encirclement, a technique blamed for killing and maiming millions of dolphins that swim above yellowfin tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific.

Implemented in 1990, the embargo has been a huge success. Foreign fisheries forced to improve their encirclement techniques produced a 96% decline in dolphin mortality. Reformers believe that if such progress is not rewarded, those nations will resume the slaughter.

The bill seeks to open the American market to foreign boats, particularly Mexico. It would allow U.S. fishermen to harvest in the eastern tropical Pacific once again, revitalizing fishing industries like San Diego’s, which was decimated by dolphin-protection laws.

The definition of dolphin-safe would change to include tuna caught by encirclement, as long as no dolphin deaths resulted. International observers would be posted on every fishing boat as monitors. A maximum of 5,000 dolphin deaths would be permitted annually.

But critics said it is impossible for an observer to properly monitor nets 1 1/2 miles wide. Furthermore, the 5,000-dolphin cap is 31% higher than the number killed last year, an incentive for fishermen to be less careful, they contended.

“This law says . . . if an observer doesn’t see them die, then it’s dolphin-safe,” said David Phillips, executive director of the Earth Island Institute in San Francisco, which led the drive for dolphin-protection laws.

But not all environmental groups agree. Greenpeace International and the World Wildlife Fund endorsed the bill, saying fishing methods that protect dolphins can endanger sea turtles, juvenile tuna and other sea life.

“The choice is between ideological purity and practical impact,” said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.). “Other countries would go back to the old means of fishing and dolphin mortality would increase again.”

An amendment to allow tuna caught by encirclement to be sold in U.S. supermarkets--but not under the label “dolphin-safe”--would have left the matter for each consumer to decide. It failed, 260 to 161.