Mexico plegdes to tighten tuna fishing regulations
Date: 03-Apr-01
Country: MEXICO
Schools of yellowfin tuna often swim beneath groups of dolphins in the eastern Pacific Ocean, where fishermen use huge encircling nets that harvest both.
Mexican tuna fishers say the U.S. market has been restricted to them ever since international concern arose over fishing practices that endanger dolphins.
In 1992, the U.S. Congress required all nations exporting tuna to the United States to adopt dolphin protection programs, effectively halting imports from Mexico and elsewhere. The restrictions were eased in 1997 and Mexico adopted measures to meet the requirements.
But Mexican fishing practices still do not permit its tuna products to be labeled "dolphin-safe" in the United States.
Mexico's Agriculture Ministry said on Sunday it would soon announce the new regulations and said they also would be applied to imports.
"Given that tuna is a highly migratory species, such measures will be extended to tuna products imported to our country, with the objective of assuring wide-ranging conservation," the ministry said in a communique.