No love for the Dolphins?

Takuan

What do you all think about this? No more dolphin safe tuna products for the United States.

compassionate_warrior

Watch out for the WTO. They've taken steps to restrict sales of nutritional supplements and vitamins in different parts of the world, and they haven't given up.

Let's see if we can guess who's against the US selling "dolphin safe" tuna? Japan, perhaps?

federica

Funnily enough, While the USA seems intent on cocking a snook at all attempts to safeguard the ecology, in the UK, a prominent chef called Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has almost single-handedly convinced all major supermarkets to stock "responsibly caught" tuna, and also convinced The EU to reconsider regulations regarding over-fishing and catch-dumping.

It seems to my poor British PoV that the more we do *here*, the less the USA does *there*...

Or am I wrong...?

person

I like Thom Hartmann, though he's a bit too far left for my tastes and I stopped listening to his radio show.

As for the WTO, its rediculous that a sovreign country can't decide for itself what type of standards it wants to set for the products it buys. If people want to catch fish without worrying about dolphins the laws of a particular country don't prevent them from doing so and they can still sell it elsewhere. If we want to pay a little bit more in order to live by some principles other than the bottom line why should some institution that we have no control over say we can't. :shake:

compassionate_warrior

As for the WTO, its rediculous that a sovreign country can't decide for itself what type of standards it wants to set for the products it buys.

Welcome to the brave new world of the WTO.

Funnily enough, While the USA seems intent on cocking a snook at all attempts to safeguard the ecology, in the UK, a prominent chef called Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has almost single-handedly convinced all major supermarkets to stock "responsibly caught" tuna, and also convinced The EU to reconsider regulations regarding over-fishing and catch-dumping.

It seems to my poor British PoV that the more we do *here*, the less the USA does *there*...
Or am I wrong...?

This is interesting, Fed. How is the "responsibly caught tuna" in the UK identified? According to the report, the issue was about labeling products for sale. Good news about EU considering limiting over-fishing.

SherabDorje

Funnily enough, While the USA seems intent on cocking a snook at all attempts to safeguard the ecology, in the UK, a prominent chef called Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has almost single-handedly convinced all major supermarkets to stock "responsibly caught" tuna, and also convinced The EU to reconsider regulations regarding over-fishing and catch-dumping.

It seems to my poor British PoV that the more we do *here*, the less the USA does *there*...

Or am I wrong...?

Just please remember that it is the moneyed elite over here that exerts political pressure for these sorts of things rather than the opinion of the general population. I don't know if you call it "lobbying" in the UK, but the people with the money have the most powerful lobbying mechanisms here, and it most often does not represent the people's actual will. A president cannot just make a treaty. The two houses of Congress has to ratify that treaty, and that's where the money flows go to, that is, contributions to re-election campaigns and so forth.

I may never eat tuna again in my life, between this and the mercury in the tuna.

compassionate_warrior

SherabDorje, I have to disagree with you a little. Sometimes the people's will does prevail; it was environmental orgs that pushed for dolphin-safe tuna. But any tuna is unsafe for humans due to the mercury content (at least, if eaten on a regular basis). hmmm....I wonder what tuna-based cat food does to the cats?

federica

This is interesting, Fed. How is the "responsibly caught tuna" in the UK identified? According to the report, the issue was about labeling products for sale. Good news about EU considering limiting over-fishing.

Fishing boats specialising in catching Tuna have their fishing equipment modified or changed to catch tuna on long lines, instead of in nets.
nets are comprehensively damaging, because so many other fish are caught up too. On lines, with specific baiting and hooks, it's far less likely to cause such huge widespread damage.

compassionate_warrior

Fishing boats specialising in catching Tuna have their fishing equipment modified or changed to catch tuna on long lines, instead of in nets.
nets are comprehensively damaging, because so many other fish are caught up too. On lines, with specific baiting and hooks, it's far less likely to cause such huge widespread damage.

Right, same in the US. I meant, how is the dolphin-safe tuna identified in the markets? How does the consumer know which tuna to buy, to support the dolphin effort? It was labeling the tuna differently that the WTO objected to. How does the UK get around that objection?

federica

I like Thom Hartmann, though he's a bit too far left for my tastes and I stopped listening to his radio show.

As for the WTO, its rediculous that a sovreign country can't decide for itself what type of standards it wants to set for the products it buys. If people want to catch fish without worrying about dolphins the laws of a particular country don't prevent them from doing so and they can still sell it elsewhere. If we want to pay a little bit more in order to live by some principles other than the bottom line why should some institution that we have no control over say we can't. :shake:

Boycotting products works. Hit large careless, callous, environmentally-indifferent and money-grabbing companies where it hurts, and you'd be amazed how convincing a drop in revenue can be.

federica

Fishing boats specialising in catching Tuna have their fishing equipment modified or changed to catch tuna on long lines, instead of in nets.
nets are comprehensively damaging, because so many other fish are caught up too. On lines, with specific baiting and hooks, it's far less likely to cause such huge widespread damage.

Right, same in the US. I meant, how is the dolphin-safe tuna identified in the markets? How does the consumer know which tuna to buy, to support the dolphin effort? It was labeling the tuna differently that the WTO objected to. How does the UK get around that objection?

Well, here was I all confident about our labelling and fishing methods.....:(

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8250917/Misleading-dolphin-friendly-claims-could-be-illegal.html

But I think we ARE trying to move in the right direction....

However, I will point out that I too, have stopped buying tuna.

Some things are just too precious to prevaricate about.

andyZ

But I think we ARE trying to move in the right direction....

However, I will point out that I too, have stopped buying tuna.

Some things are just too precious to prevaricate about.

I've lived in the UK for 5 years now and have been travelling to the US very frequently during this time. I must admit that the overall awareness of ecological issues is much higher in the UK. If you take the leading supermarkets, such as Waitrose, they clearly state on pretty much all of their products like fruits, vegis, meats and fish where it came from and how it was captured in case of fish. It's an advertisement of sorts and riding on the popular wave of being conscious about the environment and such, but it's clearly an example where it works, at least for me. I, personally, stopped buying things that are brought half way around the world, like apples from New Zealand, for example.

compassionate_warrior

If you take the leading supermarkets, such as Waitrose, they clearly state on pretty much all of their products like fruits, vegis, meats and fish where it came from and how it was captured in case of fish.

So UK tuna is also in violation of WTO rules. The WTO (or whoever is bringing this case to them for arbitration: again I ask--the Japanese, possibly?) doesn't approve of this manifestation of environmental awareness, sadly.

DhammaDhatu

I love dolphins

On Easter Sunday 2005, I jumped off the north point rocks at my beach, to swim south. Although the swell/waves were running from the north, there was a very strong rip flowing out at the north end due to the large Good Friday south swell. So I was taken much further out to sea than expected.

As I reached the southern end of the beach and turned to swim in, a big wave came in, around 30 metres outside of where the surfboard riders were sitting. Although the wave was a bit too full, I try to swim onto it, to body surf it in.

As I was swimming onto the wave, two dolphins, on either side of me, appeared, swimming onto the wave with me.

As I did not catch the wave, I tried to swim onto the wave behind it, and again, two dolphins, on either side of me, appeared, swimming onto the wave with me.

Dolphins are incredible! But then, all animals are nice also.

zidangus

I love Dolphins as well DD
I wish everyone felt like this, however, a lot of people do not, and the documentary shown below highlights this.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/cove/

Thats why more must be done to protect this magnificent animal, for instance boycott places like seaworld which uses captive Dolphins, Whales etc etc

chanratt

I love Dolphins as well DD
I wish everyone felt like this, however, a lot of people do not, and the documentary shown below highlights this.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/cove/

Thats why more must be done to protect this magnificent animal, for instance boycott places like seaworld which uses captive Dolphins, Whales etc etc

i will check this out. l
love that website