American Humane Association Joins Lawsuit Against Federal Government on Dolphin-Safe Tuna

American Humane Association
Thursday, 10 February 2000

The American Humane Association (AHA) announced today that it has joined a lawsuit, filed this week by Defenders of Wildlife, to prevent the Department of Commerce from weakening the regulations for dolphin safe tuna sold in the U.S. AHA, a leader in animal and child protection issues since 1877, said the Administration's Final Rule implementing the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act (IDCPA) undercuts a decade of U.S. laws allowing consumers to buy dolphin-safe tuna. AHA officials stressed that the Administration's decision will allow tuna caught with purse seine nets – deadly to dolphins – to be sold in the U.S.

Purse seine nets, which are mile-wide and 100-feet deep are used to maximize tuna harvesting. However, these nets also chase, encircle and eventually kill thousands of dolphins that follow schools of yellow-fin tuna.

"More than a decade ago, the use of purse seine nets in tuna fishing led to the deaths of 150,000 dolphins annually in the Eastern Tropical Pacific," said Adele Douglass, AHA's Director of Public Policy. "At that time, Americans from all walks of life united in one of the most successful nationwide boycotts in U.S. history. This ultimately led to changes in the Marine Mammal Protection Act and other important dolphin protection legislation, which required only tuna caught without purse seine nets could carry the dolphin-safe label."

"As a result, annual dolphin deaths dropped from 150,000 just 15 years ago to only 2,000 in 1998. And, now the Commerce Department's action completely wipes away this progress. It's a travesty."

The lawsuit filed this week by Defenders of Wildlife, the Earth Island Institute, and other organizations, including AHA, contends that Commerce Department's Final Rule promulgating the IDCPA does not follow that law's important dolphin protection provisions. The IDCPA sets out to implement an international agreement on tuna fishing practices in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, and how those practices affect dolphins. The law's provisions include mandates on separating and tracking dolphin-safe and dolphin unsafe tuna, and requirements for annual targets to reduce dolphin deaths. However, the Commerce Department's Final Rule does not satisfactorily accomplish these and other goals of the law. The result is there will be no guarantee that tuna imported into the U.S. is dolphin-safe. The lawsuit seeking to reverse this decision was filed this week in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

"Despite the Administration's weak implementation of this important law, I am pleased that the three largest U.S. tuna companies – Star-Kist, BumbleBee and Chicken of the Sea – have taken a more humane stand and publicly agreed to only buy tuna harvested without purse seine nets. But what of all the other tuna sold in America? We have high hopes that the court will side with the public in this matter," Douglass concluded.

For more information, or to contact American Humane Association, see their website at: www.americanhumane.org