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Earth Island Institute: Who Died and Made You King?

by Campaign for Eco-Safe Tuna
August 26, 2015

Earth Island Institute: Who Died and Made You King?

We recently got our hands on a shocking letter from Dr. Angel Herrera Ulloa, Latin American Consultant for Earth Island Institute (EII), to the government of Costa Rica. That’s right – the government of Costa Rica. In the letter, dated June 2014, EII introduces itself "as the main organization charged by civil society of the United States with overseeing compliance of section 116(d)(1) of the Marine Mammal Protection Act." That’s not only rich…but patently not true.

In fact, this responsibility belongs to the United States government, specifically the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Which leads us to wonder, who died (or is in a coma) and made Earth Island king? Earth Island is not a regulatory agency and its reputation is suspect at best. In fact, last year a study by two well-known academics at Wageningen University in the Netherlands called into question the reliability of Earth Island’s flagship certification, the so-called “dolphin safe” label which they bully seafood companies to adopt.

Similarly, in the letter to Costa Rica, Earth Island resorts to well-known threats: “EII is studying measures to be taken, including the possibility of banning Dolphin Safe-certified companies in the region…from receiving tuna caught in Costa Rican waters….” And then they brag: “These types of measures have been successfully applied by EII in other parts of the world…”

It’s also disturbing that Earth Island wrote this letter to the Costa Rican government to promote their preferred method of fishing – through the use of Fish Aggregating Devices or FADs, a method that has been proven to be unsustainable, produce a huge amount of bycatch and ultimately harm the dolphin populations Earth Island claims to protect.

Earth Island can make all manners of threats. They can event hold their breath and stomp up and down. The truth is that they are not a branch or agency of the United States government. They have zero authority to oversee compliance of any section of the Marine Mammal Protection Act…or any other law for that matter. Earth Island’s days are numbered. This latest, desperate attempt to defend their for-profit scheme at all cost is a sure sign of this.

It is high time the Federal Trade Commission finally perform its statutory responsibilities under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to police and shut down these deceptive and illegal practices of Earth Island Institute!