ACS Conservation Committee Report

ACS Conservation Reports are selected summaries of current news articles on whales, dolphins, porpoises, and their environment. These reports are offered to you under the fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law.

 Victory for Dolphins!...
 Federal Court Strikes Down Bush Administration's Effort to Weaken Dolphin Protection

In early August 2004, Dolphins won a major legal victory! Federal Judge Thelton Henderson, in the case Earth Island Institute v. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans, noted that the U.S. Commerce Department's weakening of the "Dolphin-safe" label on tuna cans illegally ignored scientific evidence and must be overturned. He ordered the issuance of a new rule prohibiting the use of a "Dolphin-safe" label on any tuna products caught by netting dolphins.

The ruling shows the Bush Administration's deceit in ignoring administration scientists, and exposes their attempt to give in to Mexican demands to allow dolphin-deadly tuna back into U.S. with a misleading label. Earth Island was able to obtain secret government memos demonstrating that the U.S. agencies' own biologists knew dolphin populations were not recovering, as a result of the tuna fishery. These documents also revealed the intense pressure from the U.S. State Department, Mexico and other tuna fishing nations to ignore the scientific conclusions.

In a 51-page decision, Federal District Court Judge Henderson rebuked the Bush Administration, stating that: "(T)he record convincingly demonstrates that the Secretary (of Commerce) nonetheless proceeded to sacrifice the integrity of the decision-making process by disregarding the best available scientific evidence in favor of political and diplomatic considerations."

On December 31, 2002, President Bush's Commerce Secretary Evans issued a "no significant adverse impacts" finding allowing Mexico, Colombia, and other tuna fishing nations to label their tuna as "Dolphin Safe" and sell it in the U.S., even if it was caught by the chasing, netting, and killing thousands of dolphins annually. More than 7 million dolphins have been killed in tuna nets since the late 1950's.

Earth Island Institute's federal lawsuit contended that the Bush Administration weakened the "Dolphin Safe" tuna label definition on the basis of trade politics, rather than science, as required by Congress.

Plaintiffs in this case include: Earth Island Institute, Samuel LaBudde, The Humane Society of the United States, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Defenders of Wildlife, International Wildlife Coalition, Animal Welfare Institute, Society for Animal Protective Legislation, Animal Fund, and Oceanic Society. (While ACS supported this lawsuit, we do not officially join lawsuits)     Earth Island Institute