The US Senate passed S.39 the Tuna/Dolphin bill by unanimous vote early Wednesday (30th July). The bill rewrites the tuna fishing laws and changes the criteria for the "dolphin-safe" label on tuna.
After much wrangling that has characterized a substantial amount of the debate surrounding the controversial "tuna-dolphin" bill, the Senate voted a compromise bill agreed to during negotiations last week by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) who opposed returning to fishing for tuna by encircling dolphins. Last week there was a flurry of talks between the White House, which supports the bill, and senators supporting the Sierra Club's position, resulting in a compromise which removed the stumbling blocks to the bill's passage.
The legislation revamps the U.S. definition of dolphin-safe tuna so that tuna, which often travels with dolphins, could be caught under a controversial method known as encirclement. Under the encirclement method, fishermen use large fishing nets for tuna that can also ensnare dolphins. Under the new law, the tuna could still be classified as dolphin-safe if the fishermen ensured that any dolphins caught were then released and did not die during the catch.
The legislation was pushed by the administration in order to approve the Panama Declaration, an international agreement brokered in 1995 between the United States, Mexico, Venezuela and nine other countries that fish for and market tuna. The agreement was spurred by the threat of complaints being brought to the World Trade Organization from the foreign countries claiming that U.S. dolphin safety standards and import regulations for tuna impeded fair trade. U.S. standards require foreign companies to prove that their dolphin protection measures are comparable to U.S. standards if they want to sell their tuna here. The U.S. dolphin protection requirements are codified under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and were developed in response to estimates that up to 500,000 dolphins were being killed by tuna fishermen in foreign countries. The number has dropped drastically and last year an estimated 2,700 dolphins were killed by tuna fishermen.
The opponents of the original bill, which included many Democratic and some Republican legislators, consumer advocates and some environmental groups, including Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, argued that encirclement would cause too many dolphin deaths and that by passing the legislation, the United States would be bowing to trade pressures at the expense of dolphin protection.
The compromise calls for a fully funded three year study on the effects of encirclement on dolphins. At a Senate Oceans and Fisheries Subcommittee hearing in March, Boxer argued that there was not enough scientific evidence to support approval of encirclement as a dolphin safe method for tuna fishing and advocated that a study be done before Congress considers whether to allow encirclement.
Under the compromise, encirclement would be acceptable under the dolphin-safe label provided that any dolphins inadvertently caught would be let go. The Department of Commerce would be free to allow the dolphin-safe label to be used after making a preliminary finding by March 1999, in only 1-1/2 years, if no evidence to forthcoming proving that encirclement is having a negative effect on dolphin stocks. If there is an impact on dolphins, the United States would have to stick to its current standards. The Sierra Club objected that the language puts the burden on the scientists to prove that there is a negative impact rather than on the government to prove that there is none. The Club also sided with many scientists in pointing out that it would take at least three years of field study to reach any conclusions on the effect of this fishing method on dolphin stocks.
The original bill was supported by many GOP legislators, the Clinton administration and several environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Wildlife Fund. The proponents of the bill argue that because the fishing areas affected by the Panama Declaration are in the Eastern Pacific and are not U.S. waters, passage of this legislation may be the United States' only opportunity to influence fishing practices in those waters. A companion bill (H.R. 408) was passed by the House on May 21 by a vote of 262-166. The House also passed tuna legislation last year.
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