Political Quotes

“Mahi-mahi, for instance, a fish popular in white tablecloth restaurants in the United States, suffers far higher bycatch rates in log and school sets than in dolphin sets. Looking at blacktip sharks, we see a similar problem. The same is true for every other nondolphin species in the ETP. If you look at Mahi-mahi, you are talking about losing 30,000 Mahi-mahi fish for every 1,000 pounds of tuna caught in the eastern tropical pacific. Mr. President, the basic intent of the Panama Declaration and S. 39 is to lock the nations that fish in the ETP into a very strict conservation regime that will require them to continue the progress made to date and eventually reduce dolphin mortality to a level near zero. And it is also to recognize a fishing method that causes very little harm to dolphins, but which is also the safest possible fishing method for all of the other species that live in the ETP. Mr. President, as we know, some Senators have been concerned that dolphin setting may be causing unseen harm to dolphins, and they objected to the immediate change in the dolphin safe label contained in S. 39 as reported by the committee.”