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A bill to repeal the
"dolphin-safe" tuna import standard cleared the House Resources
Committee, 28-13, on April 16. A full House vote is expected in May, with the
best chance of stopping the bill a threat of fillibuster by Senator Barbara
Boxer (D-California), who co-sponsored the 1990 standard as a then-House member. |
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| The "dolphin
death bill" is favored by both the Clinton administration and leading
Republicans, who are concerned that the "dolphin-safe" law may violate
the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs and the North American Free Trade
Agreement, as preliminary rulings have held, thereby opening the U.S. to World
Trade Organization penalties. Under GATT and NAFTA, nations may regulate the
substance of imports, but not the means by which they are made.
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| Opposed by Earth
Island Institute, the American Humane Association, Friends of Animals, the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society, and the Humane Society of the U.S., among others,
the "dolphin death bill" is endorsed by Greenpeace, the Center for
Marine Conservation, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Environmental Defense
Fund, who hold that the seven-year embargo of tuna netted "on dolphin"
has convinced tuna fishers to let dolphins escape from their nets, contrary to
previous practice, and that netting "on dolphin" is less dangerous to
sea turtles, albatrosses, and other endangered sea life than the leading
alternatives, longlining and "log sets." |
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Longliners in
Hawaiian waters alone killed an estimated 12,000 albatrosses a year, 1990-1994,
according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service researcher Beth Flint and National
Marine Fisheries Service colleague Robert Skillman.
Opponents of the "dolphin
death bill" argue that the way to enhance protection of any endangered
species should not be to increase avoidable harm to other species. |
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