I'm writing to thank you for your story today (Abercrombie Seeks Help in
Keeping Dolphins Safe) about Rep. Neil Abercrombie's constructive work in
opposing what has been accurately described as the "dolphin death bill".
In doing so, he faces down a highly-financed lobbying campaign by Mexico
which seeks to open the U.S. market to dolphin-deadly tuna, and to
fraudulently re-define the label term "dolphin safe" to include tuna caught
by chasing and setting nets around dolphins. (This is the fishing method
which has killed between 6-10 million dolphins in recent decades. It is not
necessary to catch tuna, merely cheaper.) Incredibly, the new bills would
even make it illegal for responsible tuna companies to say on their label
that they DON'T encircle dolphins with nets.
The "death bills" - H.R. 408 and S.39 - are supported by an unlikely
alliance which includes Greenpeace USA, Center for Marine Conservation, VP
Al Gore, and all of the most anti-environment Congresspeople, and would gut
the strong "dolphin-safe" laws won by the kids of America in 1990. Since
last year, this "bailout" package for the worst dolphin-killers has been
ironically touted as a "dolphin saving" measure. In fact, the dolphins
have merely become one more chip in the "free trade" tradeoffs, with Mexico
protesting current "dolphin safe" laws through the World Trade
Organization.
Due to the "Greenpeace" support, few have taken the time to question the
bills, which are now expected to pass even though opposed by most
conservationists who know the issue. Those who have done their research,
like Rep. Abercrombie, easily spot the flaws: these "death bills" would not
only remove the strong "dolphin safe" standards now needed to sell to the
U.S. market, but will also transfer "observation" of dolphin kills to a
toothless U.S.-funded treaty group, the IATTC, which has no power or
inclination to enforce kill limits. Thus, the "kill quota reductions"
claimed by Greenpeace USA and others for these bailout bills are
meaningless.
Dr. Ken Marten, Director of ET's Project Delphis and a former U.S.
Government tunaboat observer, notes "It is obvious... that [the proposed]
total annual quota of 5,000 dead dolphins makes no sense, since that many
can be killed in a few hours with one bad net set." In order to sell tuna
as "dolphin safe" on the U.S. market, all that will be required is a
captain's promise that the tuna were caught "dolphin safely" with an
observer on board, and the signature of a port official in graft-ridden
Central America. Says Marten "These bills will open the floodgates again,
to unlimited dolphin kills".
My strongest praise to Neil Abercrombie for speaking out against this bill
and working for rational legislation.
Don White
Don White is the President of Earthtrust, and was the founder of the
Greenpeace International Dolphin Campaign in 1982. He has worked for 23
years on the tuna/dolphin issue.
