🚀 go-pugleaf

On 20 Nov 1996, Jym Dyer wrote:

snip

> 
> =o= A recent disappointing sellout of dolphins by Greenpeace
> USA notwithstanding, Greenpeace is certainly far more "radical"
> than the other two groups, though not what any sober commentator
> would call "socialist."

I do disagree that this was a "sell-out".  Greenpeace came down on the
side of science-based policy; some politicians and enviro-groups instead
did some posturing. The re-labeling would have allowed large tuna caught
by the encirclement-on-dolphins method to be sold under some such label in
the US. 

The point is, this method WAS killing 100's of thousands of dolphins
/yr. Recently, with observers on board, new methods were perfected
which allow the dolphins to escape--- so that deaths were at negligible
levels, of 3-5000 fishery-wide. Netting the nearshore juvenile schools of
tuna that do not have dolphins is destructive not only to the tuna
fishery, but has increased by-catch of turtles, seabirds, and other fish,
comparred to netting the schools of mature fish far out at sea. 

Greenpeace did not "sell-out", but was being pragmatic on the dolphin
issue, and was furthering its objective to reduce by-catch, a huge
problem. Without the change in labeling, the nations barred from importing
their dolphin safe tuna may well revert to the old dolphin-genocide
methods, unless their own enviros can convince them not to.

		Dave Braun