The Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act was passed by US Congress on 28 November 1990, and is part of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. This act made it illegal to label tuna products as “dolphin safe” unless the fishing vessels were monitored and given clearance that fishing practices were not harming or killing dolphins. The data collected by the tuna canners must include not only the species captured, but also its condition, the quantity and the area of capture, the catcher vessel, as well as the dates of the harvesting trip. If a firm mislabels a product, it faces heavy fines. By creating this standardized labeling system, the US government was able to regulate tuna production in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. The US was the largest consumer of tuna globally; therefore the responsibility of the US consumers and policy makers was ranked high. The result of this act was a dramatic reduction in dolphin mortality among participating countries.
Contributed by Christina Garcia
Course: Modern Global Environmental History
Instructor: Dr. Wilko Graf von Hardenberg
University of Wisconsin–Madison, US
- Enríquez-Andrade, Roberto R., and Juan Guillermo Vaca-Rodríguez. "Evaluating Ecological Tradeoffs in Fisheries Management: A Study Case for the Yellowfin Tuna Fishery in the Eastern Pacific Ocean." Ecological Economics 48, no. 3 (2004): 303–15.
- Baird, Ian G., and Noah Quastel. "Dolphin-Safe Tuna from California to Thailand: Localisms in Environmental Certification of Global Commodity Networks." Annals Of The Association Of American Geographers 101, no. 2 (2011): 337–55.