Chapter IV — Marine Mammal-Fisheries Interactions 



erally imposed U.S. embargo provisions to be incon- 

 sistent with the Agreement. The panel suggested, 

 however, that such trade sanctions may be permissible 

 if designed to ensure compliance with a multilateral 

 agreement. It should be noted that the panel decision 

 and a decision in a related challenge of the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act intermediary nation embargo 

 provisions have yet to be formally adopted by the 

 GATT Council. 



An international agreement was concluded among 

 the eastern tropical Pacific fishing nations at a special 

 meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Com- 

 mission in 1992. This non-binding agreement, called 

 the "La Jolla Agreement" after the site of the negotia- 

 tions, established the International Dolphin Conserva- 

 tion Program (IDCP) under the auspices of the Tuna 

 Commission. The specifics of the agreement and 

 actions taken to implement it are discussed below. 



The Marine Mammal Protection Act's tuna-dolphin 

 provisions were amended further by the International 

 Dolphin Conservation Act of 1992. The amendments 

 focused on ways to eliminate, rather than merely 

 reduce, incidental dolphin mortality and established a 

 framework for a global moratorium on the practice of 

 setting on dolphins to catch tuna. Although no fishing 

 nation agreed to the moratorium and certain provi- 

 sions of the Act never went into effect, other provi- 

 sions were not contingent on concluding a moratorium 

 agreement. Significant changes included (1) revising 

 the quotas applicable to the U.S. fleet, (2) modifying 

 the American Tunaboat Association's general permit 

 to proscribe setting on eastern spinner or coastal 

 spotted dolphins, and (3) prohibiting effective 1 June 

 1994 the sale, purchase, transport, or shipment in the 

 United States of any tuna that is not dolphin-safe. As 

 discussed in the previous annual report, a U.S. district 

 court also ruled in 1994 that the general permit did 

 not authorize U.S. fishermen to encircle any dolphins 

 from a depleted stock, including the northeastern 

 offshore spotted dolphin, which was declared depleted 

 in 1993. 



Prohibited from making sets on three of the ten 

 stocks of eastern tropical Pacific dolphins, faced with 

 a quota of 105 dolphins, and foreclosed from market- 

 ing in the United States any tuna caught by setting on 

 dolphins, none of the five U.S. vessels remaining in 



the eastern tropical Pacific fishery initially requested 

 a dolphin mortality quota for 1995 under the interna- 

 tional program. Although the five vessels each 

 requested and received a quota for the second half of 

 1995, no sets on dolphins were made and no dolphins 

 were killed by the U.S. fleet in 1995. 



1992 La Jolla Agreement 



As noted above, the governments of all nations 

 participating in the eastern tropical Pacific tuna fishery 

 adopted the La Jolla Agreement at a special meeting 

 of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission in 

 1992. The countries resolved to establish a multilat- 

 eral program to reduce incidental dolphin mortality in 

 the eastern tropical Pacific to levels approaching zero 

 by setting annual limits. The annual limits on total 

 incidental dolphin mortality established by that resolu- 

 tion were 19,500 in 1993, 15,500 in 1994, 12,000 in 

 1995, 9,000 in 1996, 7,500 in 1997, 6,500 in 1998, 

 and less than 5,000 in 1999. Other aspects of the 

 program adopted under the resolution were (1) the 

 continuation of the international observer program 

 with the additional requirement that at least 50 percent 

 of the observers deployed by a nation each year be 

 placed by the Tuna Commission; (2) the establishment 

 of a review panel to monitor compliance by the 

 international fleet with the annual dolphin mortality 

 limits; (3) expansion of the existing research and 

 education programs, including an increase in efforts to 

 find methods of catching large yellowfin tuna that do 

 not involve encircling dolphins; and (4) establishment 

 of a scientific advisory board to assist the Tuna 

 Commission in efforts to coordinate, facilitate, and 

 guide research directed at reducing dolphin mortality. 



The parties subsequently agreed to a system where- 

 by each vessel participating in the fishery would be 

 given an individual dolphin mortality limit. Under 

 that agreement, any vessel that leaves the fishery or 

 that does not use any of its quota by 1 June forfeits its 

 quota for the remainder of the year. Unused quotas 

 may be allocated to other vessels for the second half 

 of the year. Any vessel that exceeds its dolphin limit 

 will have the amount of the excess deducted from its 

 limit for the following year. 



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