U.S Senator Barbara Boxer from California said Wednesday she would introduce legislation to counter Bush administration rules that she said "gutted" the dolphin-safe definition on cans of tuna.
In an interview, the California Democrat declared that the Bush administration was "putting free trade ahead of protecting dolphin." The legislation, to be introduced Thursday, is to counter new labeling rules the government announced Dec. 31.
That day, the Commerce Department announced tuna caught by encircling dolphins may immediately be imported into the United States and bear the "dolphin-safe" label as long as observers aboard the fishing vessels certified no dolphins were killed or seriously injured. The ruling opens the way for Mexico, which uses such encircling practices, to ship tuna to the United States.
Under the old dolphin-safe definition, which Boxer's legislation seeks to reinstate, tuna caught using dolphins as targets was automatically barred from bearing the consumer-friendly label on cans sold in the United States.
Boxer said the new definition is "completely false advertising" and said the previous rule has "been gutted by the Bush administration."
The revision by the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service came after the agency determined that while thousands of dolphins continue to be killed during tuna fishing, the losses pose no significant threat to the species.
"Americans can continue to have confidence that when they purchase tuna with the dolphin-safe label that dolphins are being protected," Bill Hogarth, the agency's director, said when the revisions were announced.
On another front, conservationists are challenging the administration's new guidelines in federal court here.
The San Francisco-based Earth Island Institute and the National Marine Fisheries Service were behind closed doors Wednesday working on a possible settlement, according to representatives from both sides. Environmentalists are also asking a judge to nullify the new labeling standard. The case is Earth Island Institute v. Evans, 03-0007. Among other things, the lawsuit said targeting dolphins during tuna fishing stresses dolphins to the point of "fatal heart damage" and can cause mothers and their offspring to become separated. Those and other factors may go unnoticed to fishing monitors, the groups charged.