[Lady Alexandra of Herts]

I dont really understand all this 'dolphin friendly' stuff. I guess its something to do with the way its caught and dolphins getting trapped but I really dont know. Until recently I have only ever bought tuna which happens to have,'dolphin friendly' printed on the can. Last week I got some cans of tuna from the pound shop (instead of my usual supermarket) which had no mention of this. Does this mean its unfriendly to dolphins???? I just assumed by law that it all had to be. Maybe not??? I dunno. Xxx

[GJ Drought]

Some sort of dolphin based racism i imagine. Tunas have never liked Dolphins.

[Lethal Biddle]

Wiki.

Essentially, "dolphin safe" means, at it's weakest, that if dolphins were accidentally caught alongside this tuna then all efforts were made to avoid their injury or death. Or, at it's strongest, that dolphins were absolutely definately not harmed in any way, that all efforts were made to completely avoid catching dolphins in the first place (so, they were line caught, or caught using dolphin friendly trapdoor nets etc.)

Since most "dolphin friendly" or "dolphin safe" labels are not based on one centralised standard there is a fair bit of variation on how strict compliance has to be. So it's probably worth googling the exact names & terminology used on the can if you want to be certain.

It's not illegal to not be dolphin friendly. At least, not in most countries as far as I'm aware. The only thing that's illegal is for the dolphins to actually be churned up with the tuna & sold as tuna meat. So if they're caught they're thrown back, even if they're dead. But dolphin safe sells better & at a higher price generally. So they'd want to stick it on the can if they could. So anything that doesn't say dolphin safe may as well have a sticker that says "This tuna used to have the corpse of a tortured dolphin in it, but we were told we had to take it out".

This post has been edited by Lethal Biddle: 05 September 2011 - 04:24 PM

[Worm]

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did some coverage of this in his 'Fish Fight' programmes (which should be available on 4od)

The 'law' doesn't really come into it - although it's massively complicated based on where the fish was caught, landed, proicessed etc. - it's about marketing. Not having 'dolphin friendly' on a can doesn't mean it's automatically 'dolphin unfriendly', but it might be an indication.

In general the picture is wider than just dolphins though. From memory, one of the main concerns is the use of Fish Aggregation Devices (FAD) - basically a big floaty thing they put in the water which attracts small fish - which then attracts big fish, like tuna.

They then scoop up the whole lot and keep the tuna, regardless of what other things have been caught up.

(this is a massively over-simplified description, but you get the idea...) Most of the big names are now moving towards having 'pole and line caught' tuna which avoids all these issues (including dolphins) but I seem to recall that the really big one (John West) was having none of it... ETA - I was wrong, they have changed as well

I particularly like that link because of the way they describe the fish attracted to FADs - "the whole cast of Finding Nemo"

This post has been edited by Worm: 05 September 2011 - 04:26 PM

[Johnson89]

This is a sector I work in and know very well, rest assured all tuna sold in the UK is dolphin friendly they just stick it on the can for marketing appeal. However Dolphin Friendly fishing methods arent without their issues, and many of the gears used are severely impacting marine bird species. One of the first gears to replace the Purse Seine (the dolphin killer) was the Longline, essentially a long rope covered in hundreds of baited hooks that is trailed behind a boat, this offeres a floating lunch to the likes of many now endangered seabirds such as the Wandering Albatross which ultimately leads to the birds being hooked through the throat and drowning, not a nice way to go? Not to mention baiting the hooks requires the use of other fish often caught using the Bottom Trawl. Unfortunately Tuna fisheries are riddled with destructive flaws which is why I avoid eating tuna entirely.

Next week farmed salmon... The sustainable alternative that is knacking the Puffins.

[Lady Alexandra of Herts]

Johnson89, on 17 September 2011 - 08:00 PM, said:

This is a sector I work in and know very well, rest assured all tuna sold in the UK is dolphin friendly they just stick it on the can for marketing appeal. However Dolphin Friendly fishing methods arent without their issues, and many of the gears used are severely impacting marine bird species. One of the first gears to replace the Purse Seine (the dolphin killer) was the Longline, essentially a long rope covered in hundreds of baited hooks that is trailed behind a boat, this offeres a floating lunch to the likes of many now endangered seabirds such as the Wandering Albatross which ultimately leads to the birds being hooked through the throat and drowning, not a nice way to go? Not to mention baiting the hooks requires the use of other fish often caught using the Bottom Trawl. Unfortunately Tuna fisheries are riddled with destructive flaws which is why I avoid eating tuna entirely.

Next week farmed salmon... The sustainable alternative that is knacking the Puffins.

Oh nooooooo!!!!! I really like tuna I will try not to think about it. Xxx

[Rachel Rose]

The world of tuna fishing, whaling and shark hunting has a nastiness to it that defies explanation. The only thing that really puzzles me is the Chicken of the Sea thing. Tuna tastes nothing like chicken. Hmmmm.

Good luck with your search for edible, safely harvested fishies.