Fishing Industry United States

Japan's tuna industry said Friday that it will not follow the decision of top American tuna canners to use only dolphin-safe methods of catching tuna but promised to study alternatives to dolphin-threatening fishing procedures. "The U.S. companies' decision will have little effect on the Japanese fishing industry," said Yasushi Tamaki, an official of the drift net fishing section of the Japanese Overseas Fishing Union. StarKist Seafood Co., Van Camp Seafood Co.

The three biggest companies in the U.S. tuna industry on Thursday pledged not to buy or sell fish caught using methods that kill or injure dolphins. The move surprised but delighted environmentalists who have been waging a fierce grass-roots campaign to ban fishing techniques that kill an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 dolphins a year. The first announcement came from H. J. Heinz Co. and its Long Beach subsidiary, StarKist Seafood Co., the world's largest tuna canner.

Shrimpers could be fined $8,000 or more starting today if caught with nets that lack turtle excluder devices, gates that allow endangered sea turtles to escape from the nets without drowning. Shrimpers, who had hoped President Bush would grant a last-minute reprieve, complain that the TEDs cause them to lose nearly a third of their catch. Although shrimpers have been required to use TEDs since Sept.

A bill endorsed by two California representatives would require that labels on tuna products display a warning that the fish might have been caught by methods "known to kill dolphins." The bill, now before a House subcommittee, would apply to tuna caught with drift gill or purse seine nets. E. Charles Fullerton, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service's southwest region, told the House panel Wednesday that only 10% of U.S.-fleet tuna catches involve dolphin.

Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher ignored both his scientific experts and department lawyers when he allowed shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico to discard devices designed to save sea turtles that are on the endangered species list, according to Commerce Department documents. Mosbacher acted Monday after a meeting with a number of Gulf Coast congressmen and after a weekend in which shrimpers blockaded shipping lanes in Houston and other coastal cities.

Responding to public outrage over the killing of sea mammals, including dolphins drowned in tuna nets, Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. The law proclaimed an "immediate goal" of reducing dolphin deaths and injuries "to insignificant levels approaching . . . zero." But, 17 years later, dolphins continue to perish by the tens of thousands. And that situation is not likely to change any time soon, tuna industry and government officials acknowledge.

Backing away from its controversial policy of "zero tolerance," the government will no longer seize commercial fishing boats found to be carrying small quantities of illegal drugs, the Coast Guard and Customs Service said Wednesday. The change took effect immediately after the announcement by Coast Guard Adm. Paul Yost and Customs Service Commissioner William Von Raab.

A federal judge extended his order Tuesday for American tuna fishing boats to carry government observers to prevent needless killing of dolphins that swim above yellowfin tuna. The injunction by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson could save "tens of thousands" of the approximately 100,000 dolphins killed each year by U.S. and foreign tuna boats in the southeastern Pacific, said Joshua Floum, a lawyer for environmental groups that filed the suit.

State authorities said Tuesday they have seized up to 900 crab pots illegally placed in U.S. waters by Canadian fishermen. The pots contained more than 10,000 pounds of Dungeness crab, valued at about $25,000, said Tom Burton, a fisherman and Whatcom County councilman. The pots were found about a mile south of the Canadian border, which cuts across the more than 10-mile-wide mouth of Boundary Bay, authorities said. The crabs were returned to Boundary Bay because the U.S.