Dolphin safe label
Dolphin-safe labels are used to denote compliance with laws or policies designed to minimize dolphin fatalities during fishing for tuna destined for canning.
[3] While the Dolphin Safe label and its standards have legal status in the United States under the Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act, a part of the US Marine Mammal Protection Act,[4] tuna companies around the world adhere to the standards on a voluntary basis, managed by the non-governmental organization Earth Island Institute, based in Berkeley, California.
[7] For US import, companies face strict charges of fraud for any violation of the label standards,[8] while Earth Island Institute (EII), an independent environmental organization, verifies the standards are met by more than 700 tuna companies outside the U.S through inspections of canneries, storage units, and audits of fishing logs.
[5] Earth Island Institute receives donations from the companies it verifies; and EII has never had an external scientific audit of its labeling program, a best practice for eco-labels.
International observers are increasingly part of the Dolphin Safe verification process, being present on virtually purse seine tuna boats in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
[13][14] Thus, claims that tuna fishing can continue to chase and net dolphins and not cause harm are not backed by scientific research.
The US subsequently expanded reporting and verification procedures to all oceans of the world, while maintaining the strong standards for the Dolphin Safe label, to come into compliance with the WTO decision.
[24] Early on, Earth Island instituted additional protections for sea turtles and sharks with its cooperating tuna companies.
Earth Island further banned shark finning on tuna vessels in the Dolphin Safe program, a measure which is also slowly being adopted by treaty organizations.
Critics have suggested the "cuteness" of dolphins is improperly used by environmental groups to raise money and draw attention for the labeling program, while tuna bycatch is in fact a much more significant problem for other species.
[28] Trade organizations, industry groups and environmental advocates have sharply criticized Earth Island's program in the United States and elsewhere, which is mostly based on self-certifications by fishing captains that they killed no dolphins.
That label has been used to can tuna that could have caused severe mortalities of dolphins and other marine species of the ecosystem.” The issue has created economic and diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Mexico.
[29] Starting 2008, Mexico raised complaints with the World Trade Organization's (WTO) about US import restrictions and use of dolphin safe labeling on Tuna products.
It is thus not implicated in the dolphin by-catch problem associated with the yellowfin tuna of the Eastern Tropical Pacific consumed in the USA.
The concerns being addressed in the UK are different from those in the USA: they are preventative to ensure that tuna sold does not become unsafe for dolphins, rather than rectifying an existing environmental problem.
