Bottlenose dolphins and other marine mammals face a number of conservation threats because of anthropogenic, or human-induced, impacts on the marine environment. Marine mammals adapted to the aquatic environment when they were free from boats, pollution, noise, and human competitors for fish resources. Some of the general conservation threats to marine mammals are habitat degradation, boat traffic, fishing interactions, pollution, yellow fin tuna fishery in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, and direct takes.
In the United States, dolphins are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of 1972. This Act prohibits hunting, harming, or harassing of any marine mammal by any person under legal jurisdiction of the U.S. and under the International Dolphin Conservation Act of 1992.
The International Dolphin Conservation Act (IDCA) is a federal law passed by Congress in 1992. The IDCA is an act to amend the MMPA of 1972. The IDCA is designed to bring about a rapid phase-out of all purse-seines set on schools of dolphins.
The way the IDCA is designed to work is by providing countries that are currently purse-seining on dolphins with economic incentives to stop. The IDCA provided for a five year moratorium on purse seine net “dolphin” fishing beginning in 1994.
The International Dolphin Conservation Program Act (IDCPA) is the U.S. implementation of the international Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program, to which the U.S. is a signatory. The U.S. fishing fleets were prohibited from chasing, capturing, and setting nets on dolphins. The U.S. undertook studies under the IDCPA to determine if the process of chasing and encircling dolphins was having a significant adverse impact on depleted dolphin populations.
The IDCA authorizes the Secretary of State to enter into international agreements that limit the death of dolphins through fishing for yellow fin tuna in the Pacific Ocean. It outlines the terms and conditions under which such agreements can be concluded and restricts further the taking of dolphins under the general permit issued by the American Tunaboat Association and the sale of tuna that is not “dolphin safe”[i].
The IDCA also establishes the U.S. as an official “dolphin-safe zone,” making it illegal for any person to sell, purchase, offer for sale, transport, or ship tuna or tuna products that are not considered dolphin-safe, and provides three million dollars to fund research on alternative fishing technologies[ii].
The IDCA mandates negotiations to revise the convention for the establishment of an Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission regarding provisions in the Declaration of Panama and the Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks Agreement and a revised schedule of annual contributions to the Commission.
The IDCA authorizes the Secretary to study and submit a report to specified congressional committees and the Commission on the effect of intentional encirclement on dolphins and dolphin stocks incidentally taken during purse seine yellowfin tuna fishing in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It also requires the undertaking or support of research to further the goals of the International Dolphin Conservation Program[iii].
The IDCA is truly a legislation landmark and is important for the conservation of dolphins and other marine life.
[i] 16 USCS § 1412.
[ii] 16 USCS § 1417.
[iii] 16 USCS § 1412, 1413.
