April 6, 2013 — When the World Trade Organization found last year that U.S. labeling requirements for dolphin-safe tuna put Mexican tuna fishermen at a trade disadvantage, marine advocates worried that the federal government would weaken its dolphin-safe standards.
Instead, a proposed rule published Friday by the National Marine Fisheries Service would expand the certification requirements.
In the eastern tropical Pacific — which roughly extends from San Diego west to Hawaii and south to Peru — dolphins and large yellowfin tuna swim together in closely packed schools. To catch tuna in that part of the world, fishing fleets chase dolphins and encircle them with huge nets, known as purse seines, to gather the tuna below.
Although techniques have been developed to let dolphins escape the nets near the surface, chase and encircle can be lethal for the marine mammals. Tuna caught in that manner cannot be labeled dolphin-safe, a condition that sparked the trade complaints from Mexico.
The government’s answer to the dispute is to expand some of the dolphin-safe conditions it has imposed on purse seine fishing in the eastern Pacific that doesn’t employ chase and encircle.
Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times