Dear President Bush,

It is crucial that the United States make an effort to preserve the integrity of the dolphin-safe label on cans of tuna.  Today, this country holds a great amount of influence over world priorities, and we must use that influence.  The environment cannot survive without significant improvements in both world and American policies.  There is no doubt that the United States realizes the need to protect the suffering environment, but action to assuage the environment must begin immediately.  One small yet important step we can take is to encourage the proper use of dolphin-safe labels. 

All over the globe, current methods of catching tuna are killing one of our planet’s most precious creatures.  Dolphins are recognized everywhere as intelligent, beautiful, and friendly animals.  The loss of these animals destroys ocean ecosystems all over the world and can quickly lead to the endangerment and even extinction.  In water off France, for example, over 440 dolphins were caught in a tuna longline fishing area (bounded 51-53 degrees N and 10-20 degrees W) in 1992 alone.  This harassment of dolphins must stop.

The common technique of encircling and chasing tuna with seine nets, used worldwide, “causes significant harm and death to dolphins,” so the U.S. government must encourage tuna companies to pursue safer methods.  Seine nets are often over 1 mile long and 600 feet deep, and a 1989 study showed that most boat captains kill at least 5 dolphins for every set of yellowfin tuna.  A recent government-sponsored report showed that 9.3 million dolphins are chased each year and 2.3 million are caught.  Individual dolphins may be chased over 10 times a year, resulting in permanent damage due to stress.  Dolphins cannot recover from such frequent physical and psychological attacks, so that worldwide populations are irreversibly harmed.  The three main American companies, Bumblebee, Star-Kist, and Chicken of the Sea, have “found economically viable alternatives” to seine nets, and continue to comprise 90% of the U.S. tuna market.  It is obvious that tuna companies can and should practice truly dolphin-safe methods, and the encouragement of the national government would help spread safe techniques.

Dolphin-safe labels on tuna cans are vital to the protection of dolphins.  Labels will encourage consumers to buy dolphin-safe tuna, thus encouraging tuna companies to produce dolphin-safe tuna.  This label, however, must actually mean something.  The administration’s decisions concerning the tuna industry will alter the phrase “dolphin-safe” to include the encircling and chasing technique, which is by no means safe for dolphins.  In this weakened form, the dolphin-safe label clearly misleads consumers and makes an untrue claim.  The dolphin-safe label must maintain its integrity, and only the government can protect it.

The state of the global environment must be a primary concern of the United States government.  Preserving the world’s dolphin populations is an integral part of this concern.  Enforcing the meaning and application of the dolphin-safe labels on tuna cans will be a simple step toward this goal.  Dolphin-safe labels are also important to the economy, as there is an “intensifying commercial challenge… [for companies] to justify the processes they employ to produce” their products.  It is your responsibility to safeguard the dolphin-safe label on tuna cans.  Please fulfill it.

Sincerely,

Gilene Y.
McLean , VA