In Panama City last October, eight Latin American nations that have tuna fisheries signed an agreement designed to protect dolphins and other non-target species in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela are now waiting for the U.S. Congress to pass the law that would enforce the accord, called the Panama Declaration. France, Spain, the United States and the island of Vanuatu also signed.
In Pacific waters from California to Chile, dolphins swim above schools of tuna. In the 1950s, this natural habit turned deadly as fishing boats began using immense nets that are pulled tight, encircling schools of tuna like an enormous draw-string purse. Fishing crews often didn't allow dolphins, turtles and other sea creatures to escape these nets. According to the National Wildlife Federation, which helped craft the Panama Declaration, since 1959, almost six million dolphins were killed.
A U.S. embargo on southeastern Pacific tuna caught with these nets and improvements in fishing techniques helped reduce dolphin deaths to just over 4,000 in 1994 -- down from more than 400,000 in 1972. Despite this progress, Latin American fleets that use the huge nets are banned from selling tuna in the United States, even if crews are careful to liberate entrapped dolphins. Meanwhile, U.S. consumers can buy tuna from other oceans where monitoring of fishing practices is not as thorough.
NWF biologist Rodrigo Prudencio explains that the Panama Declaration will be permanent and will replace current voluntary and difficult-to-enforce "dolphin-safe" agreements. The Center for Marine Conservation, World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense Fund and Greenpeace International, led by its offices in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala and Argentina, also helped draft the pact.
The Panama Declaration sets an annual limit of 5,000 dolphins killed by tuna fishing in the eastern Pacific and requires that an observer be on-board every tuna-fishing boat. If a tuna catch results in the death of dolphins, it can still be imported to the United States, but can not be labeled "dolphin-safe." Some groups and U.S. legislators are fighting the agreement because of the loosened trade restrictions.
"Levels of protection provided by the agreement are based on population estimates of each species of dolphin," says Prudencio. "Some mortality is permitted but only if populations are not affected."
Contacts: In Brazil, Greenpeace, 55-11-881-5509; in the U.S., Rodrigo Prudencio, NWF, 1400-16th St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-2266, 202/797-6603 (tel), 202/797-6646 (fax), prudencio@nwf.org
This article is provided from the Rainforest Alliance's Tropical Conservation Newsbureau, based in San Jose,Costa Rica. For more information, contact Diane Jukofsky or Chris Wille, Rainforest Alliance, Apdo. 138-2150, Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica; Phone: 506-240-9383; Fax: 506-240-2543; Email: infotrop@sol.racsa.co.cr
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