Is Dolphin Safe Tuna Really Dolphin Safe? by canttakesky

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Is Dolphin Safe Tuna Really Dolphin Safe?

POSTED BY: CANTTAKESKY
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 24, 2012 04:49
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Thursday, July 19, 2012 3:21 PM

Quote:
The Costa Rican Spinner Dolphin is a sub-species of dolphin found only in a 90 mile wide band off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. If we allow the tuna boats to kill them off, they will be gone forever.

On our dolphin and whale tours we often saw the tuna boats off in the distance and sometimes we stayed with the dolphins all day until dark so that the tuna boats couldn't get to them. But the past two days we have seen them in action with netted dolphins.

Yesterday they had a pod of over 1000 spinner dolphins in the net. We swam into the net and saw frantic, panicked dolphins, dead dolphins stuck in the net and lots of yellow fin tuna. We went back out today and once again they had netted dolphins, but this time, since they split up the dolphin pod by doing their "back down" procedure five times over a period of two hours yesterday, they only had a very small group of 100 or so Spinner Dolphins netted. Once they let the dolphins go (none were killed today) and they pulled the net up, they only had only caught a shark and a manta ray. All the stress and distress of the dolphins was for nothing.

After some research it seems this boat is not part of the dolphin safe program. We do want to give BIG credit to Earth Island Institute who instituted the dolphin safe program which has saved the lives of 100,000's of dolphins and who quickly sent out a letter to all Latin American canneries about this boat. Our question is about the back down procedure and it's affects on dolphin health and behavior, whether dolphins are killed or not. Take a stand for our oceans. Don't eat tuna.

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Thursday, July 19, 2012 3:41 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

I love Tuna. And I'm encouraged to eat fish by my physician.

Is there no safe source of Tuna?

--Anthony

Note to Self:
Raptor - woman testifying about birth control is a slut (the term fits.)
Six - Wow, isn't Niki quite the CUNT? And, yes, I spell that in all caps....
Wulf - Niki is a stupid fucking bitch who should hurry up and die.

“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” -Thomas Szasz

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Thursday, July 19, 2012 6:30 PM

CANTTAKESKY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_safe_label

Apparently, Earth Island Institute is one of the orgs that monitor dolphin safe fisheries. Here is their list of approved fishing companies:

http://earthisland.org/dolphinSafeTuna/DolphinSafeCanners.html

Quote:
UNITED STATES AND US TERRITORIES

Best Fish Company
American Albacore Fishing Association
Western Fishboat Owners Association
Wild Planet Foods, Inc.
StarKist Seafood Company (Dong Won)
Chicken of the Sea (ThaiUnion Int.)
BumbleBee Seafoods Inc.

Personally, we avoid tuna because it is a huge fish, which tends to accumulate a significant amount of mercury. We buy salmon from Alaskan fisheries. They go out every June and ship the salmon overnight by UPS or FEDEX, packed in ice. There is some literature that Alaskan salmon are mostly or totally mercury free. We just got some for $12 a pound, which isn't bad for this kind of quality wild caught fish.

-----
So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
is all the sad world needs.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox, poet (1850-1919)

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Friday, July 20, 2012 3:47 AM

CAVETROLL

Quote:
Originally posted by ANTHONYT:
Hello,

I love Tuna. And I'm encouraged to eat fish by my physician.

Is there no safe source of Tuna?

If you live near the coast, buy it off the docks from a commercial hook and line fisherman. Tuna is a very large fish, so be prepared to portion, vacuum pack and freeze a LOT of fish. By way of compensation, a fresh grilled tuna steak is one of the finer things in life.

If you get the right type of bag, you can pack and freeze your tuna raw and cook it by boiling the whole bag. Then open the bag to cooked tuna. If you go this route though, you will be completely spoiled on canned tuna. Salad or casserole made with fresh tuna is worlds apart from canned.

Kwindbago, hot air and angry electrons

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Friday, July 20, 2012 4:53 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

These guys should branch out now and save the dolphins too, now that they've become so successful with the whales.

The first season I laughed and thought they were a sad joke.

Seriously, if they can do THAT much better with only sponsorship from Bob Barker, what could they do if Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie and Jim Carey and Charleze Theron all gave 5 million dollars like Bob did? How many other much lesser paid stars would throw in after news of this influx of capital was reported as well?

After four seasons of watching this show, I'd be so proud to say that for even one year I was a part of the crew.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Friday, July 20, 2012 5:04 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Quote:
Originally posted by CaveTroll:
Quote:
Originally posted by ANTHONYT:
Hello,

I love Tuna. And I'm encouraged to eat fish by my physician.

Is there no safe source of Tuna?

If you live near the coast, buy it off the docks from a commercial hook and line fisherman. Tuna is a very large fish, so be prepared to portion, vacuum pack and freeze a LOT of fish. By way of compensation, a fresh grilled tuna steak is one of the finer things in life.

If you get the right type of bag, you can pack and freeze your tuna raw and cook it by boiling the whole bag. Then open the bag to cooked tuna. If you go this route though, you will be completely spoiled on canned tuna. Salad or casserole made with fresh tuna is worlds apart from canned.

Kwindbago, hot air and angry electrons

Hello,

Sadly, Arizona is further from the sea than I would like it to be. Occasionally, I miss South Florida.

--Anthony

Note to Self:
Raptor - woman testifying about birth control is a slut (the term fits.)
Six - Wow, isn't Niki quite the CUNT? And, yes, I spell that in all caps....
Wulf - Niki is a stupid fucking bitch who should hurry up and die.

“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” -Thomas Szasz

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Friday, July 20, 2012 5:14 AM

CANTTAKESKY

They ship tuna too, from places like this:

http://www.thefreshlobstercompany.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PR
OD&Product_Code=sshi002&Category_Code=SI

-----
So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
is all the sad world needs.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox, poet (1850-1919)

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Friday, July 20, 2012 7:49 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:
Originally posted by ANTHONYT:
Hello,

I love Tuna. And I'm encouraged to eat fish by my physician.

Is there no safe source of Tuna?

Not for the tuna, there isn't.

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Friday, July 20, 2012 8:52 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

We boycotted tuna companies for decades because of this sort of thing. I was very grateful when the big tuna companies agreed to comply, and I see no reason to go back to boycotting them. In a way, to stop buying tuna entirely would harm those who abide by the dolphin-safe program, and I won't do that.

I don't know what company(ies) this article is about; if it mentions any, that's one thing--I only skimmed and won't go to the link, I can't take that stuff.

Quote:
After some research it seems this boat is not part of the dolphin safe program. We do want to give BIG credit to Earth Island Institute who instituted the dolphin safe program which has saved the lives of 100,000's of dolphins.

It was a long, drawn-out battle and note that Starkist, Chicken of the Sea and Bumblebee are listed among the safe ones. We only eat those; it was hard enough to get them to comply, but they finally gave in. I won't penalize them because some other (hopefully small) company is fucking up. I hope they manage to stop this practice, as it's horrific. But if you're worries about dolphins, there are many dangers they face, pollution, oil spills and boats being among them. They probably won't go extinct as fast as many land mammals, so it'd be helpful if we did what we could to save them for as long as possible.

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Monday, July 23, 2012 1:43 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I think Niki's attitude is reasonable and I agree. I only eat fresh tuna, never canned because it smells like cat food to me and is unappetizing.

I have Kathy Bates on speed dial, mwa ha ha ha (in exaggeratedly evil voice)

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

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Tuesday, July 24, 2012 4:49 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

If you're looking for canned tuna, you might try to find line-caught. It's usually smaller tuna that have had less time to accumulate mercury, and is no real danger to dolphins. Also, if you want to Buy American, there are some small U.S. fisheries that you can buy. It is a bit pricy, but we like it better than the stuff from the big canners.

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