Chapter IV — Marine Mammal-Fisheries Interactions 



jeopardy unless the United States, during the 1995 

 session of Congress, enacted legislation lifting the 

 primary and secondary tuna embargoes, codifying the 

 La Jolla Agreement, and redefining dolphin-safe to 

 include all tuna and tuna products harvested in accor- 

 dance with the regulatory measures adopted under the 

 La Jolla Agreement. 



Declaration of Panama 



Dissatisfied with the pace at which international 

 negotiations to resolve the tuna-dolphin issue were 

 being pursued by the United States, the Center for 

 Marine Conservation, the Environmental Defense 

 Fund, Greenpeace, the National Wildlife Federation, 

 and World Wildlife Fund undertook discussions in 

 September 1995 with representatives of Mexico to 

 explore the possibility of reaching a multilateral 

 agreement among the tuna-fishing nations to provide 

 a framework for strengthening the international 

 conservation program and lifting U.S. tuna embar- 

 goes. These discussions led to a compromise ap- 

 proach supported by the tuna-fishing nations, this 

 segment of the environmental community, and the 

 U.S. Administration. 



The compromise developed by Mexico and the five 

 environmental organizations ultimately formed the 

 basis for the Declaration of Panama, signed by 

 representatives of 12 nations on 4 October 1995. 

 Signatories to the declaration included Belize, Colom- 

 bia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Honduras, Mexico, 

 Panama, Spain, the United States, Vanuatu, and 

 Venezuela. Those nations reaffirmed the commit- 

 ments and objectives of the La Jolla Agreement to 

 reduce dolphin mortality in the eastern tropical Pacific 

 tuna fishery to levels approaching zero through the 

 setting of annual mortality limits, with the goal of 

 eliminating dolphin mortality by seeking a means of 

 capturing large yellowfin tuna not in association with 

 dolphins. Moreover, the nations declared their 

 intention, contingent on the enactment to changes in 

 U.S. law, to formalize by 31 January 1996 the La 

 Jolla Agreement as a binding Inter-American Tropical 

 Tuna Commission resolution or other binding legal 

 instrument. The envisioned changes to U.S. law 

 include lifting the primary and secondary embargoes 

 for tuna caught in compliance with the La Jolla 

 Agreement as it would be modified under the Declara- 



tion of Panama, allowing access to the U.S. market 

 for all tuna, whether dolphin-safe or not, caught in 

 compliance with the agreement by nations that are 

 members of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Com- 

 mission or that have initiated steps to become mem- 

 bers, and redefining the term dolphin-safe to include 

 any tuna caught in the eastern tropical Pacific by a 

 purse seine vessel in a set in which no observed 

 dolphin mortality occurred. 



The signatories to the Declaration of Panama 

 specified several provisions that would be included in 

 the binding international instrument once the requisite 

 changes to U.S. law had been enacted. These would 

 include commitments to (1) adopt conservation and 

 management measures that ensure the long-term 

 sustainability of tuna stocks and other living marine 

 resources in the eastern tropical Pacific, (2) assess the 

 catch and bycatch of juvenile yellowfin tuna and other 

 living marine resources of the eastern tropical Pacific 

 and adopt measures to reduce or eliminate such catch, 

 (3) implement the international agreement through 

 enactment of domestic legislation and/or adoption of 

 regulations, (4) enhance existing mechanisms for 

 reviewing compliance with the international program, 

 (5) establish annual stock-specific quotas on dolphin 

 mortality based on minimum population estimates, (6) 

 limit overall dolphin mortality to no more than 5,000 

 per year, (7) establish a system that provides incen- 

 tives to vessel captains to continue to reduce dolphin 

 mortality, and (8) establish or strengthen national 

 scientific advisory committees to advise their respec- 

 tive governments on research needs. 



As provided for in the Declaration of Panama, until 

 the year 2001 an annual quota for each stock would 

 be set at between 0. 1 and 0.2 percent of the minimum 

 population estimate for the stock. Beginning in the 

 year 2001, the annual per-stock quota would be set at 

 0.1 percent of the stock's minimum population esti- 

 mate. If the annual quota for any stock were exceed- 

 ed, all sets on that stock and any mixed schools 

 containing individuals from that stock would cease for 

 the remainder of the year. In addition, should the 

 annual mortality for the eastern spinner or the north- 

 eastern spotted dolphin exceed 0.1 percent of the 

 minimum population estimate, the governments would 

 conduct a scientific review to consider whether further 

 action to reduce mortality is needed. 



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