New “Dolphin-Safe” Regulations Are Not Exactly Dolphin-Safe

by Campaign for Eco-Safe Tuna
April 15, 2013

In 2012, the World Trade Organization (WTO) found that U.S. consumers are misled by tuna that is labeled “dolphin-safe” in the United States. Turns out a lot of the “dolphin-safe” tuna we eat is not actually dolphin-safe. So the WTO ruled that the U.S. needs to reform its current standards for deeming tuna “dolphin-safe.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released some proposed regulations to do just that. The only problem is, the proposed regulations do not provide more protection for dolphins and other marine life.

Since some people were a little quick to praise the NOAA for their these regulations, we want to quickly debunk some of the inaccuracies in what’s being said about these new regulations.

Statements by Senator Boxer:

“I am pleased that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reaffirmed its commitment to protecting the integrity of this label that consumers have come to trust and rely on.”

• NOAA’s own studies show tens of thousands of dolphins are killed each year catching tuna that is labeled dolphin safe in the U.S. All NOAA has reaffirmed is its commitment to perpetuating a fraudulent label upon consumers.
• The regulations do not offer any real protections for dolphins either. Specifically, they call only for a captain’s self-certification that no dolphins were killed or injured in the capture of the tuna. This puts the power of dolphin-safe designation solely in the hands of an economically self-interested party – the captain of the vessel.

Senator Boxer’s press release said: “She later led 13 Senate colleagues in calling for the Administration to develop a solution for complying with the WTO’s final ruling. By applying the same certification requirements internationally and to all gear types, the proposed rule seeks to address Mexico’s challenge without weakening the label’s current intentions.”

• This is unequivocally false. The proposed regulations do NOT apply the same certification requirements to tuna caught anywhere outside the eastern Tropical Pacific.
• The U.S. dolphin safe labeling regime remains unverifiable and deceptive to consumers under the new regulations.

Los Angeles Times article

“Regardless of the fishing gear used or where the tuna was caught, for all tuna products labeled dolphin-safe, fishing boat captains and any on-board observers would have to certify that “no dolphins were killed or seriously injured.””

• The proposed rule will effectively require only a captain’s self-certification.  Page 8 of the draft regulations hold out the possibility of using observers IF there is a program and IF NOAA determines that the observers are qualified AND are authorized by the authority managing the program to certify dolphin mortalities.  This is absolutely ridiculous when the certification rule currently in place in the ETP is already one of the strongest in the world.

“What we’re trying to do is to bring everybody all around the world to the same standard as we’ve been applying in the eastern tropical Pacific,” said Kevin Chu, deputy southwest regional administrator for the national fisheries agency.
The ETP is the only fishery where dolphin-safe is tracked, transparent and verified. If NOAA standards become the global standard, sustainability in the ETP and around the world could be lost. Global fisheries would face the following realities:

• Actual mortalities of dolphins would still not be considered. Instead, for most tuna supplying the world market only a single method of fishing would be eligible for the dolphin safe label.
• FADs, which are the most ecologically destructive method of fishing in human history, would continue to be the most economically method of fishing all over the world in order to obtain the dolphin safe label.
• Every fishing boat in the world would simply self-certify no dolphins were killed, which obviously they would whether it were true or not.
• As described above, the proposed regulations for tuna caught in fisheries outside of the ETP bear no practical resemblance to the multilaterally enforced standards imposed inside the ETP fishery – the only fishery where “dolphin safe” can truly be verified as dolphin safe.

At the end of the day, there are no short cuts to creating a safe environment for dolphins and marine life. We must hold ourselves and our tuna fleets to the most stringent and proven standards of eco-safe fishing practices. The NOAA draft regulations simply won’t get the job done.