It's only taken us ten years but finally the US government
has agreed to set the same stringent rules for imported seafood as for seafood protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The US rules have been in place since 1972 but it's taken a protracted lawsuit to get the feds to implement the rules
The regulations will require foreign fisheries to meet the same marine mammal protection standards required of U.S. fishers or be denied import privileges — implementing a 40-year-old provision of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
“The new regulations will force other countries to step up and meet U.S. 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 Center for Biological Diversity. “The U.S. government has finally recognized that all seafood consumed in the United States must be ‘dolphin-safe.’ ”
With over 90% of US seafood imported from other countries these new regulations should have a major global impact on the survival rates of especially endangered whales and dolphins.
More than 650,000 whales, dolphins and other marine mammals are caught and killed in fishing gear each year, according to the CBD. The animals are “bycatch” of commercial fisheries and either drown outright or are tossed overboard to die.
Despite U.S. efforts to protect marine mammals in its own waters, fishing gear continues to pose the most significant threat to whale and dolphin conservation worldwide.
The settlement was in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York on behalf of plaintiffs Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council. I take this victory personally as I have been involved with marine mammal protection for many years and have written about it
here,
here and
here.