The issue of the mortality of dolphins in relation to tuna fishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) is extremely complex, and is part of the serious, world-wide problem of bycatch and how many marine species, not just cetaceans, are endangered by the global fishing industry. There have been many advances in methods of lowering bycatch, but there are still enormous problems affecting the world's ocean species.
Of particular interest to ACS is the tuna-dolphin issue. Due to public outcry, U.S. laws and international agreements, the official numbers of dolphins killed by purse-seiners have dropped from an estimated 350,000 per year through the 1960s, to 133,000 as late as 1986, to a preliminary estimate of 1,636 in 2000. That figure, however, is only based on observed mortality. Unfortunately, it is still unknown how many dolphins are dying. A particular unknown is how stress affects the animals that escape the actual nets, and how the round-up methods affect the population as a whole; their feeding, calving and overall highly complex social interactions.
In addition, the tuna-dolphin issue is part of the global trade debate, and therefore fraught with politics, both national and international. For example, Mexico's dismal record of compliance with international agreemen06-Jul-2006 13:28here and several other countries in 1990. But in April 2000, pressured by trade groups, the Clinton administration lifted the embargo on Mexico. The Bush administration attempted to weaken the standards behind the "dolphin safe" labels on canned tuna in the name of free trade. Conservationists won a lawsuit and a government appeal to stop the administration's attempt, and have brought another suit charging that the Commerce Department failed to follow U.S. law issuing rules for tuna imports and challenges the United States' continuing to allow dolphin-netted tuna to be sold in American stores.
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