Tuna Dolphin Case

The Great Tuna Boat Chase and Massacre Case has Ecuador claiming that the United States is in violation of its 200-mile territorial sea. From it’s inception, Ecuador had accepted the customary three mile limit as the demarcation of its territorial waters. However, after 130 years, Juan Valdez achieved power in 1952. Under his regime, he proclaimed that the three mile boundary was never meant to be considered a fixed and unalterable boundary, and that historical practices as well as the natural features of the area justified a 200-mile territorial sea. Each Ecuadorian president since Valdez claimed this as well.

Prior to 1994, trade and the environment were two entirely separate issues. There were no environmental regulations found in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) or in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Upon the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) environmental concerns of North America as a whole were for the first time provided within a side agreement to the NAFTA. Finally there is a trade agreement that recognizes the concerns of North American citizens to maintain a healthy, sustainable environment, where the damaging effects of free trade could be minimized. The NAFTA entailed provisions for stricter environmental regulations

Bottlenose Dolphins are a very interesting animal. They have a fusiform (Spindle shaped) body that allows them to move quickly in the water. Because of the Dolphins’ shape they have bilateral symmetry. They also have a dorsal fin, flippers, and a fluke. However, Bottlenose Dolphins do not have ears on the outside of their bodies, hair, or hind limbs. The color of this type of dolphin is usually a light grey color to a black. Their stomach is white and sometimes has a pink hue. One physical adaptation these dolphins have is a telescoped skull. The skull is like this because it allows them to breathe more easily while swimming. Bottlenose Dolphins also have blubber that they use as insulation and vascular shunts that allow them to have cooling for certain types of organs and tissues in their bodies. Finally, Bottlenose Dolphins have sharp teeth that let them grasp onto their prey, so their tongue can push the prey down the dolphin’s throat. Bottlenose Dolphins have a range mass of 260 to 500kg which is 572.69 to 1101.32 in pounds. The average mass of the Bottlenose Dolphin is 400kg. Their average mass in pounds is 881.06.

The amount of cetacean bycatch in the fishing industries of the world has decreased incredibly since it was first announced as a problem(NOAA 8). In the 1960’s, there was an estimated number of 500,000 dolphins caught as bycatch per year by fishing industries alone(NOAA 8). There was an act, the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, that was passed in 1972. This act’s main goal was to reduce marine mammal bycatch. This act required that “scientific studies were initiated, observers were placed on fishing boats, fishing gear was inspected,

Once relentlessly hunted by commercial industries for these products, cetaceans are now protected by international law.

I am like a Bottlenose Dolphin. In nature, Bottlenose Dolphins are known for their advance thought processing, communication skills, sense of curiosity, and open minds. Like a Bottlenose Dolphin, I have all the same attributes that make me a distinct student and individual. To the advanced mind of a Bottlenose Dolphin, the ocean is its domain that it can mature in and mold in the way it pleases. For me, the entire earth is my domain to mature in and to mold. The unique way I want to shape the future of the world is by becoming a biomedical engineer and using what I have learned during my studies to change the world of biomedicine. I will use my dolphin like attributes to aid me in reaching my goal. Once I become a biomedical engineer I will surely have accomplished my goal in life and hopefully will be well on my way to changing others way of life..

In the 1960’s, there was an estimated number of 500,000 dolphins caught as bycatch per year by fishing industries alone(NOAA 8). There was an act, the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, that was passed in 1972. This act’s main goal was to reduce marine mammal bycatch. This act required that “scientific studies were initiated, observers were placed on fishing boats, fishing gear was inspected, and boat captains with high dolphin mortality rates were reviewed(NOAA 8).” The also modified fishing gear in order to reduce how many dolphins were caught. This act was an incredible success, and dolphin bycatch had “declined from about 500,000 to about twenty thousand dolphins per year(NOAA 8).” This shows how much the fishing industries had improved how they fished in order to protect the dolphins. They also made a requirement that all tuna that was caught through dolphin-safe means be labelled(NOAA 9). This allowed consumers to see what they were buying. Therefore, it became in the interest of fishing industries to catch tuna by means other than through dolphins. Today, there are only about three thousand dolphins killed every year through fishing industries(NOAA 10). There is also a clear distinction between tuna that was caught through dolphin-safe means and otherwise. Therefore, the only thing a consumer has to do is to buy

The bottlenose dolphin, genus Tursiops, is a cetacean renowned for its social intelligence, even being prescribed the status of non-human persons along with other intelligent species such as great apes. Both dolphins and primates share a number of attributes that have led to an evolutionary propensity for intelligence, including prolonged parental care, long lives, complex social bonds, and communicative cooperation (Reynolds et al., 2000). But unlike primates, dolphins lack opposable thumbs, as well as any sort of limb that is able to manipulate their environment capably. Dolphins evolved in an environment that is less affected by gravity and provides three-dimensional movement, but provides limited chemosensory and visual cues for orientation

Driven by such high prices, many fishermen, chefs and business owners depend on the bluefin tuna industry for a way to support their lives. Respectively so, without sustainable fishing practices and stricter regulations for the bluefin tuna, neither Japan, nor the rest of the world will even have the choice on whether or not eating and fishing bluefin tuna should be an option (Crockett).

Dolphins, and all marine mammals, are protected from harassment by federal law; under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Harassment means “any act of pursuit or annoyance which has the potential to disturb the dolphins in the wild by causing disruption of their behavioral patterns of migration, nursing, breeding, sheltering, or resting and

Cetacean bycatch is an ongoing problem in the oceans of the world. Cetaceans are defined as whales, dolphins and porpoises(CBRC 1). Bycatch is “marine mammals that are “captured” but discarded”(Read 2). This happens when fishing industries are fishing for a certain type of marine animal and other marine animals are caught accidentally along with the intended catch. Many times, this leads to the death of the animal that was not meant to be caught, and the animal is tossed back into the ocean. This happens with all kinds of marine life, and it has caused the depletion of many different species. However, this is specifically bad for cetaceans, such as dolphins and whales, because they have such a long lifespan(Brown 2). They also take a very long time to mature(Brown 2). These factors make catching these animals very detrimental to the species as a whole because it takes longer for them to reach an age where they can reproduce(Brown 2). The population of many cetaceans have decreased exponentially. When there is someone watching the nets that cetaceans are accidentally caught in, many times they can be saved. However, there are only select few types of fishing methods that do this, and they are not of the prevalent fishing methods that produce cetacean bycatch. This is a problem because there is a connection between most living animals. If a certain part of the connection is eliminated, it will all fall apart. For example, the relationship between

One such area where dolphins were needed was Operation Iraqi Freedom. In order to speed up the process to detect underwater mines during Operation Iraqi Freedom, dolphins were deployed in the Middle East to locate them, this allowed ships entering the harbor to travel much safer than if the dolphins would not have done that (Barfoush). To train dolphins for operations like this the Navy has a practice minefield set up in San Diego where their dolphins quickly learn how to locate their mines in only a few trials; every few days the mines are moved around so the dolphins can have a fresh challenge (Barfoush). For a dolphin to be ready to search for underwater mines, they undergo a three year training course where they will be taught very strict

Throughout the years, marine mammal bycatch has continued to be a growing concern due to a steady increase in mammal mortality rates. Mike Gaworecki mentions in his article that during this past month the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration initiated a rule limiting seafood imports from different countries that do not meet the United States new bycatch standards. Bycatch is a term that means catching unwanted species when intending to fish for a different type of species. On a daily basis multiple dolphins, whales, and other unwanted animals are being captured because of inappropriate or ill-suited forms of netting and traps. By implementing this rule the United States government hopes to prevent and reduce future cases of inappropriate capture. NOAA claims that they feel this is necessary because they want to enforce more restrictions on fishery related marine mammal deaths, while influencing other countries to improve on their fishing methods.

One of history’s most horrible events is the Jewish holocaust. This was a horrible event in WWII history. This was a mass genocide of millions of Jewish people by the Nazis led by Hitler. In Hitler’s book Mien Kamph, he wrote about getting rid of the jews in germany’s political, intellectual life and culture. He was very open to hating them. Although Hitler did not originally plan on carrying out the systematic mass murder of millions of Jews, this ultimately did happen.

In 1946 the newly formed International Whaling Commission enacted a global moratorium on commercial whaling (Robbins). The IWC was formed in hopes of protecting whales and making sure that whales were spared. Without enforcement of the rules and restrictions for any nations, the problem has not gone away. Without whales the ecosystem begins to falter, the whale being one of the vital producers, and consumers of the ocean. There are countries that refused to agree to the terms of the moratorium, regardless of the damage such actions would cause. The moratorium permits whaling for scientific research, and that is the mask current whaling countries hide behind (Zelko). They argue that they are not violating any restrictions, because Article 8 of the 1946 moratorium states that whaling for scientific research is not part of the agreement (McCurry). During the 1970’s people began to care about the whales that were being killed faster than they could reproduce (Robbins). In 1986 whaling was officially banned, some nations ignored the ban, and still do. In 1993, meat DNA tested at a fish market in Japan showed that whale meat was clearly being sold, but there were no consequences. The ban made by the IWC is not