Even if the U.S. Department of Commerce goes ahead with its plan to loosen labeling standards for cans of "dolphin-safe" tuna, the nation's major manufacturers say they aren't going to change their fishing methods. Good for them.
Actually, they seem to think that it will be good for them. Although the labeling change is meant to benefit Mexican and Colombian tuna, U.S. producers say they don't expect to lose customers.
The dolphin-safe labels came into being in the early 1990s because of intense consumer pressure. When the Kroger grocery chain attempted to introduce Mexican tuna in recent years, there was a "tremendous outcry" from unhappy consumers, said an official with Bumble Bee Tuna Seafoods, a major U.S. producer with offices in Violet.
That Mexican tuna couldn't be labeled dolphin-safe because fishing fleets there and in other Latin American countries use methods that are forbidden under the existing label restrictions. But the proposed change, which is temporarily on hold because of complaints by environmental and animal rights groups, would allow fleets to use "purse seine nets" and other questionable methods and still get the dolphin-safe label.
Consumers are pretty savvy about this issue, though, and they won't necessarily be fooled into buying Mexican tuna. That's what U.S. tuna producers seem to be counting on.
Opponents of the change make a strong case for keeping the label requirements as they are. While some dolphin populations are still struggling, far fewer of the marine mammals are dying unnecessarily than before the labeling started.
The marketplace may take care of the matter, anyway. If people keep buying Bumble Bee, Starkist and Chicken of the Sea because they want to keep Flipper safe, it won't matter what kind of label the government puts on tuna from Mexico.