In a landmark settlement reached yesterday, the US Government agreed to adopt new rules that ensure seafood imported into the United States
meets high standards for protecting whales and dolphins. The long-delayed
regulations will require foreign fisheries to meet the same marine mammal
protection standards required of US fishermen or be denied import privileges,
thus implementing a 40-year-old provision of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
“The new regulations will force other countries to step up
and meet US conservation standards — saving hundreds of thousands of whales and
dolphins from dying on hooks and in fishing nets around the world,” said Sarah
Uhlemann, senior attorney and international program director of the Centre for Biological Diversity.
“The US government has finally recognized that all seafood consumed in the United
States must be ‘dolphin-safe.’ ”
Each year more than 650,000 whales, dolphins and other
marine mammals are caught and killed in fishing gear. These animals are
unintentional ‘bycatch’ of commercial fisheries and either drown outright or
are tossed overboard to die from their injuries.
Despite US efforts to protect marine mammals in its own
waters, fishing gear continues to pose the most significant threat to whale and
dolphin conservation worldwide. For example, the critically imperiled vaquita —
the world’s smallest porpoise — is being driven extinct by shrimp gillnets in
Mexico’s Gulf of California. Fewer than 100 vaquita remain. But under US law
and new regulations, shrimp from this region would be barred from entering the
United States as it does not meet the more protective US marine mammal
protection standards. These standards may include modifying fishing gear and
closing fishing in some areas to limit the risk of entanglement.
“It’s time to do what it takes to save thousands of whales
and dolphins around the world, and hold our fish imports to the same standards
that we require of our US fishermen,” said Zak Smith with the Natural Resources
Defense Council.
“This law will help do that. It provides real, enforceable
protections for marine mammals and sets up an even playing field that allows
our fishermen to be competitive in the US market. If we’d had these standards
40 years ago, we wouldn’t be scrambling today to save the imperiled vaquita.
Thankfully, if this law is implemented, other species won’t share their fate.”
Since 1972 the US Marine Mammal Protection Act has
prohibited the United States from allowing seafood to enter the country unless
it meets US whale and dolphin standards. Under today’s settlement, the federal
government must make a final decision by August 2016 about how to implement
this requirement and end unlawful imports. The rules will protect marine
mammals and level the playing field for US fishermen.
“The public demands and the US can — and by law, must —
wield its tremendous purchasing power to save dolphins and whales from foreign
fishing nets,” said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle
Island Restoration Network.
“We have the right to ensure that the seafood sold in the US
is caught in ways that minimize the death and injury of marine mammals.”
Americans consume 5 billion pounds of seafood per year,
including tuna, swordfish, shrimp and cod. About 90 percent of that seafood is
imported and about half is wild-caught.
Today’s settlement was in the US Court of International
Trade in New York on behalf of plaintiffs Centre for Biological Diversity,
Turtle Island Restoration Network and the Natural Resources Defence Council.
Read more HERE.
IAF 1502
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