Tuna fishermen off the Pacific coast have been using dolphins in order to catch What occurs is fishermen set nets on specific dolphins, attempting to catchyellowfin tuna, which is found living in the same area as the dolphins. Aftertrapping the dolphins, the fishermen simply pull them up onto the boat with thetuna and let them die. This procedure has killed nearly seven million dolphinssince the 1950s. The extremely high death rate of dolphins caused the United StatesCongress to amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act during the 1980s in orderto suggest different ways of catching tuna. In 1990, the famous dolphin-safetuna labeling was created. Throughout the early 1990s America adopted newdolphin protection plans which made necessary that all tuna being imported heremust follow the same guidelines as the United States in order to put an end to theharassment of dolphins. As these new laws were helping the dolphin population tremendously, thetuna-fishing businesses from other countries were losing buyers. In 1990, Mexicowas embargoes from tuna shipment due to their ways in catching tuna. Thesoon-to-be World Trade Organization (WTO) demanded that the embargo bestopped, because according to the law, a country may not embargo a supplyunless the supply itself is dangerous. In other words, if the tuna was dangerousthey could embargo it, but if its catching were killing millions of dolphins, anembargo could not be made. Mexico and other Latin countries demanded that the Marine MammalProtection Act be lightened so that these countries could sell their tuna under thelabel of dolphin safe. After threats from the WTO, President Clintonsadministrators met with officers from Mexico in order to discuss the problem. Adeal was made, called the Panama Declaration, which would put a limit on thenumber of dolphins a boat could catch, and lower the definition of dolphin-safein order to allow the harming and catching of dolphins. Congress has been attemptin...
