Where Tuna for Tomorrow Got it Wrong on Today’s ETP

by Campaign for Eco-Safe Tuna
September 17, 2013

Last week Tuna for Tomorrow featured a seething blog post on its site that attacked our campaign for being….dolphin unfriendly. That’s right, no need to readjust your screen. We, the Campaign for Eco-Safe Tuna apparently hate dolphins!

Tuna for Tomorrow is getting a little caught up in the tuna of yesterday. It’s true that for parts of the 20^th Century fishermen caught tuna without regard for the bycatch of dolphin or environmental impact.  But in the 1980s, shocked to learn of the number of dolphins being caught as bycatch, the nations that fish for tuna in a part of the ocean known as the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) agreed to take a stand. They created the La Jolla Agreement and, ultimately, the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program (AIDCP) to reform their fishery and make it ecologically safe.

Since 1986, the AIDCP has successfully reduced dolphin mortalities in the ETP by more than 99 percent from the 1986 levels. While some of the credit can be attributed to developments in technology, the real success is due to the new fishing techniques adopted by Central and Latin American fisherman and the dolphin-safe verification system which enforces strict dolphin safety procedures through a comprehensive, multilateral cooperation regime that includes 100 percent independent observer verification aboard all large tuna vessels.

 

In today’s ETP, fishermen take pride in conducting their fishing trips the right way. They use specially designed nets and fishing procedures that focus on the capture of large, mature tunas while successfully  maintaining the lowest possible levels of unintended bycatch of juvenile tunas and other marine species, including dolphins.

Independent scientific observers ensure that vessels follow proper procedures and that no dolphins are harmed in the capture of that tuna.  If any dolphins are harmed, that tuna is segregated on board the vessel and remains separated from dolphin-safe tuna throughout the storage and production processes and may NOT ever be certified as AIDCP Dolphin-Safe.

Outside the ETP, however, the rampant use of FADs causes hundreds of thousands of tons in bycatch each year from vessels that are regulated by nothing but the honor system. Moreover, the United States placed market restrictions on tuna from the ETP to help corner the U.S. marketplace. Rather than withholding blood-stained tuna from commercial sale, almost all of the tuna caught outside of the ETP without exception receives a “dolphin-safe” label and goes on the shelves for American consumers.

Today the United States exists as a member of the AIDCP in name only. While the United States was a partner to the Agreement, U.S. fishermen long ago left the fishery and moved into waters in the Western Pacific Ocean where they thrive with little or no regulations and have self-interested groups like Tuna for Tomorrow and Earth Island Institute do their bidding at home. In short, rather than put in the work and expense to reform fishing practices and protect the sustainability of our oceans, the United States fleet simply moved on to the next fishery, where they are once again fishing in a manner that is unsustainable in its current form.