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To: maceng2 who wrote (1453)	9/28/2002 3:20:31 AM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1643

>> Really. I have fished on the West Coast USA, off SF, and I expect the next thing you will tell me is that the Worlds fish stocks are not threatened << you are helping make my case for protection. i recall reading a book on trade and the details are fuzzy at this point but if i recall correctly japan and others were severely overfishing tuna in the waters off alaska. only after non-tariff protective barriers were instituted by the united states did the fish stocks avoid being completely wiped out. i also read about this... PRESS RELEASE: Dolphins Sacrificed for Free Trade WTO Politics Weakens U.S. Tuna Label earthisland.org Posted by the International Marine Mammal Project on December 3, 1999 Contacts: David Phillips, (415) 788-3666 Mark J. Palmer, (415) 788-3666 San Francisco -- The issue of dolphins being drowned in nets set for tuna is a tragic example of how trade politics and the World Trade Organization (WTO) influence is prompting the Clinton Administration and Congress to override hard-won U.S. environmental laws. Earth Island Institute and the Dolphin Safe/Fair Trade Campaign (85 environmental and animal welfare organizations) are working to keep the "dolphin safe" label -- found on all canned tuna in the U.S. since 1990 -- honest. Since 1990, the "dolphin safe" label can only be applied to any tuna caught without chasing and netting of dolphins by fishermen (e.g. non-encirclement of dolphins). Tuna fishermen in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) target dolphins because tuna and dolphins form mixed schools. Over the past 4 decades, the tuna fishery has killed more than 7 million dolphins, the largest killing of marine mammals in history. The advent of the "dolphin safe" tuna program and the closure of markets to dolphin-deadly tuna have been principal factors in a 97% reduction in dolphin deaths in the ETP. However, tuna industry millionaires in Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela teamed up with free-trade advocates in the Clinton Administration and Congress in 1997 to undercut U.S. dolphin protection laws and open U.S. markets to dolphin-deadly tuna. President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Congress responded to a threat from the Mexican government to cause an embarrassing international fight at the WTO over the U.S. tuna embargo which prohibits imports of dolphin-deadly tuna. On April 29th, 1999, U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley agreed to weaken the federal definition of "dolphin safe" on canned tuna labels. The Secretary, ignoring his own scientists, ruled that chasing and netting dolphins does NOT cause significant adverse impacts, and, as a consequence, the standards by which tuna is judged to be "dolphin safe" are to be weakened to allow chase, harassment, netting, injuring, and even killing of dolphins when catching tuna, as long as an on-board observer reports no dolphins killed outright or "seriously injured." Even the federal government's own scientists have agreed that dolphin populations in the ETP are not recovering, despite the dramatically lower reported kills of recent years. David Phillips, Director of Earth Island Institute's International Marine Mammal Project, stated, "President Clinton and Vice President Gore have totally caved in to trade pressure, and the result is the weakening of dolphin protections and more dead dolphins." He continued, "U.S. consumers have made it clear -- they do not want to buy tuna caught by killing and injuring thousands of dolphins." Earth Island Institute is expanding its efforts to ensure that consumer's voices are heard and that the world's largest tuna companies -- StarKist, Chicken of the Sea, and Bumblebee -- which comprise 90% of the U.S. tuna market, maintain their current strong standards for "dolphin safe" tuna (no encirclement of dolphins with nets), regardless of the weakened federal standards adopted by the Secretary of Commerce. Earth Island is following up with supermarket chains and restaurants, as well as many foreign tuna canning companies, to adopt the same pledge from these retail and wholesales sources of tuna. Earth Island is enlisting grassroots activists to support tuna companies that maintain the strong "dolphin safe" standards and press retail stores and restaurants to buy only truly "dolphin safe" tuna. Earth Island Institute is going to court to challenge to challenge the weakening of the federal "dolphin safe" standards and to keep falsely labeled dolphin-deadly tuna from U.S. supermarket shelves. Earth Island and nine other environmental and animal welfare organizations filed our first lawsuit on August 18, 1999, to overturn the Commerce Secretary's decision to weaken the "dolphin safe" label. A second lawsuit to block the lifting of the tuna embargoes against countries which continue to target and kill dolphins in tuna nets is in preparation. VIDEO AVAILABLE: Broadcast quality video footage by Samuel LaBudde of the devastating effects of tuna nets on dolphins is available by calling Earth Island (415) 788-3666. For further information, contact Earth Island Institute's International Marine Mammal Project, (415) 788-3666 or marinemammal@earthisland.org.