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捕鮪不傷海豚 美啟用海豚安全網站

2007年04月02日
摘譯自2007年3月28日ENS美國華府報導;楊璧如編譯;莫聞審校

利用「無害海豚」的方法捕撈鮪魚,讓海豚自由悠游大海。美國國家海洋暨大氣總署漁業署建立了一個網站,用來提供「無害海豚」(dolphin-safe)鮪魚漁撈的相關訊息及法規規定。這個網站DolphinSafe.Gov(http://www.dolphinsafe.gov/)由商務部管理,旨在服務消費者、製造商、進出口業者和批發商。

加註「無害海豚」標章的鮪魚產品,意在讓消費者知道,在捕捉鮪魚的漁撈作業中,不會故意用漁網圍住或傷害海豚。

「這個網站為進口商及製造商提供詳盡的說明,有關如何取得無害海豚認證的可能問題,都能在這個網站得到答案,而且網站的網址十分容易記住。」 美國海洋暨大氣總署(NOAA)漁業局的區域管理人麥克恩尼說,他同時也是美洲熱帶鮪魚委員會美國的委員。

在墨西哥和中美洲以西的太平洋熱帶海域,大型的黃鰭鮪魚會與數種海豚共游,不過人類還不清楚其中的原因何在;這種共游現象促成鮪魚漁業的興盛,但是有數百萬隻海豚因此而死亡。

另外,地球島嶼協會(Earth Island Institute)的國際海洋哺乳動物計畫也經營了一個海豚安全網站:http://www.earthisland.org/immp。這個位在舊金山的非營利保育組織使用另一個不同的標章,並表示商業部的海豚安全計畫無法真正的保護海豚。

一項產品可能會同時加上美國政府和地球島嶼協會認證的標章,兩個標章對鮪魚產品的共同要求是:在撈捕鮪魚的過程中不會故意以圍網圍捕海豚,同時,也沒有海豚在捕鮪過程中重傷或死亡。

NOAA Fisheries Service Opens Dolphin-Safe Website
WASHINGTON, DC, March 28, 2007 (ENS)

-The NOAA Fisheries Service has established a website to provide information and requirements about U.S. dolphin-safe tuna at DolphinSafe.Gov(http://www.dolphinsafe.gov/). The site, operated by the Department of Commerce, is intended to serve consumers, producers, importers, exporters and distributors.

The dolphin-safe label on tuna products indicates to consumers that dolphins were not intentionally encircled with nets nor harmed when the tuna were caught.

"This website will answer many of the questions tuna importers and processors may have in obtaining dolphin-safe certification for their product at an Internet address that's easy to remember,” said Rod McInnis, NOAA Fisheries Service Southwest regional administrator and a U.S. commissioner to the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission.

In the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico and Central America, large yellowfin tuna swim together with several species of dolphins. This association of tuna and dolphins is not clearly understood, but it has formed the basis of a successful tuna fishery, and it has resulted in the deaths of millions of dolphins.

Earth Island Institute's International Marine Mammal Project also maintains a dolphin-safe website at: http://www.earthisland.org/immp. The nonprofit conservation organization based in San Francisco uses a separate dolphin-safe label and says the Department of Commerce's dolphin-safe program does not really safeguard dolphins.

For a product to display their respective logos, both the government and Earth Island Institute require that no tuna were caught on the trip in which a purse seine net was intentionally deployed on or to encircle dolphins, and that no dolphins were killed or seriously injured in the sets in which the tuna were caught.

全文及圖片詳見 ENS報導