Follow the Money: On supporting Earth Island Institute’s so-called “environmental causes”
by Campaign for Eco-Safe Tuna
October 21, 2014
Caring for the oceans and responsible stewardship of our marine resources...they go hand in hand. And they are definitely not the priority of Earth Island Institute. Unfortunately, the money donated to Earth Island to support environmental causes is most likely going to line the pockets of these faux environmentalists.
Instead of funding legitimate conservation programs, Earth Island spends its money on greenwashing their "funders." They sell their "dolphin-safe" label to anyone who will pay, disregarding any responsibility to truly monitor the processes they purport to certify. Major donors get a bill from Earth Island, claiming their piece of the elaborate deception that is Earth Island's so-called "ocean conservation" efforts. Meanwhile, Earth Island is turning around and using the money to extort and bully retailers and fisherman into succumbing to their sham eco-label.
Earth Island spends AND makes a lot of money on deceiving consumers and supporters. Their "dolphin-safe" label is a prime example. Instead of promoting eco-safe and sustainable fishery operations, Earth Island basically mandates the use of ecologically devastating fishing using fish aggregating devices (FADs), which indiscriminately haul in whole marine eco-systems with no regard for related bycatch or non-target species.
Earth Island has no mechanism for verifying the sustainability of tuna catch. They can't tell you for sure if tuna was caught with or without harm to dolphins or any other marine life. Earth Island's "certification" relies entirely on the self-certification of ship captains, who have every reason to report their catch was clean and no reason at all to say otherwise. In fact, an NRDC report from earlier this year found that more than 10,000 dolphins were killed or seriously injured in tuna harvests in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka, India and the Philippines. Much of this blood tuna made its way to U.S. supermarkets under Earth Island's "dolphin-safe" label, but Earth Island failed to report a single incident of dolphin mortality.
So if donations to Earth Island aren't going to protect dolphins or our oceans, where does the money go?
Earth Island has a documented history of being secretive and cagey in their financial reporting. The one thing we know is that it's not going to marine conservation. To protect our oceans, make sure your money goes to legitimate and well-respected environmental conservation groups like Greenpeace, Oceana and Environmental Defense Fund.
In the coming weeks and months we will distribute this graphic to educate those with a genuine interest in marine conservation about the Earth Island deception. You can do your part by sharing it with family and friends.
Download the graphics by clicking here.
