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AMERICAS:
The Tuna Dispute
- Environmentalism or Trade
Protectionism?
Humberto Márquez*
CARACAS, (Tierramérica) -
The U.S. market is closed to
tuna caught by Latin American
fishing boats in the Pacific
Ocean due to a 2004 judicial
order aimed at protecting
dolphins. The region's fishers,
however, say the measure is an
''ecological mask'' for what
they consider protectionist
interests.
Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela
have annual tuna catches of
130,000 to 160,000 tonnes each,
while the fishing industries of
Bolivia, Colombia and Central
American countries take in
smaller volumes -- also from the
Eastern Pacific.
Dolphins follow schools of the
highly prized yellowfin tuna (Thunnus
albacares), and thus often get
caught in the fishing nets, as
do sea turtles and sharks.
Seven million dolphins died in
the past 50 years as a result of
tuna fishing, according to the
U.S.-based Earth Island
Institute (EII).
The environmental organisation
admits, however, that the
problem has been on the decline
for more than a decade, so much
so that dolphin deaths resulting
from fishing activities dropped
from 136,000 in 1986 to 4,000 in
the past year.
Despite that evidence, EII and
other conservation groups
appealed a decision by the U.S.
Trade Department to relax the
standards for ''dolphin safe''
labeling to include net fishing
if observers certified that no
dolphin had been injured or
killed during the catch.
The measure would open the door
to the enormous U.S. market for
tuna coming from Mexico and, by
extension, from other Latin
American exporters.
Based on the appeal of the
environmental activists, Judge
Thelton Henderson, of the U.S.
Federal District Court in San
Francisco, California, ruled on
Aug. 9, 2004 against the Trade
Department's decision, leaving
the ban on imports of Latin
American tuna intact.
But tuna industry executives in
the region assure that their
fishing operations comply with
international standards for
protecting dolphins.
''The nets used by the Mexican
and Venezuelan tuna fleets have
protective panels to reduce the
risk of trapping dolphins, and
they follow other provisions set
by the InterAmerican Tropical
Tuna Commission (IATTC),''
Ricardo Molinet, director of the
Venezuelan Tuna Fishing
Association, told Tierramérica.
One of those rules establishes
periods for bans on fishing --
in November and December --
agreed by Guatemala, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Panama, Spain, United
States, Vanuatu and Venezuela.
Furthermore, the fleets are to
place priority on daytime
fishing, have a IACCT observer
aboard each boat to oversee the
release of any dolphins that get
trapped, and have speedboats
available to send out rescue
teams to free the dolphins from
the nets.
''The dolphins trapped in the
nets can be released in less
than one hour after each sweep
of the schools of fish, and the
tuna caught without killing
dolphins is loaded and processed
apart from the rest, to be
labeled dolphin-free,'' Molinet
explained.
In his decision last year, Judge
Henderson argued that the
available scientific information
did not rule out the possibility
that dolphins suffer high stress
caused by the fishing industry,
and that affects reproduction
and conservation of the dolphin
population.
The EII applauded the federal
judge's decision as ''a major
victory.'' EII director David
Phillips accused the George W.
Bush administration of deceit
''in ignoring its own scientists
and caving in to Mexican demands
to allow dolphin-deadly tuna
back into the United States with
a phony label.''
The environmental organisation
has argued in its reports that
the Colombian and Mexican
fishing fleets are used by narco-trafficking
groups as a cover for
transporting illegal drugs to
the United States -- that there
is a ''tuna-cocaine
connection''.
But other eco-groups, such as
Venezuela's Foundation for
Responsible Tuna Fishing, blame
entities like EII for
underestimating scientific
evidence, the impact of the
IACCT accords and the statistics
on reduced harm to dolphins, in
order to become an agency for
degrading tuna prices.
This would benefit the
U.S.-based tuna canning
companies, like Starkist, J.
Wattie's, Miramonet and Tree of
Life, which the groups say
finance EII.
Venezuela and Mexico have
repeatedly spoken out against
the Henderson decision, saying
it is merely a cover-up for a
barrier to free trade -- what
Mexico's under-secretary for
fishing, Carlos Camacho, has
called ''an ecological mask''.
Rulings by federal judges like
Henderson are valid for the
entire United States, but are
subject to a long process of
appeals, and the countries
affected by the tuna decision
could also file complaints with
the World Trade Organisation,
said Molinet.
Meanwhile, the United States is
negotiating a free trade treaty
with three Andean countries
(Colombia, Ecuador and Peru)
that could free Ecuador's tuna
exports from tariffs. In the
past, Mexico has accused Ecuador
of inappropriate tuna fishing
practices.
Worldwide, tuna fishing
surpasses 3.4 million tonnes,
and the leaders in the industry
are Japan, Taiwan, Spain,
Thailand, South Korea and the
United States.
(*Originally published Mar. 5 by
Latin American newspapers that
are part of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is a
specialised news service
produced by IPS with the backing
of the United Nations
Development Programme and the
United Nations Environment
Programme.) |
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