Will 'Dolphin-Safe' Tuna Really Mean 'Dolphin-Dead'?

Source: New York Times, January 9, 2003 "Two former government scientists who spent years investigating stress in dolphin populations charged this week that superiors at their federally financed laboratory shut down their research because it clashed with policy goals of the Clinton and Bush administrations. The scientists ... said their research indicated that the practice of chasing and encircling dolphins to catch tuna exposed the dolphins to dangerous amounts of stress. The accusations, by Dr. Albert Myrick, a wildlife biologist, and Dr. Sarka Southern, a research associate, came days after the Bush administration relaxed the criteria for declaring tuna netted by Mexican and other foreign fishing boats to be 'dolphin safe.' In making that declaration last week, Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans said that chasing and corralling dolphins and the tuna that often accompany them into purse nets had 'no significant adverse impact' on the dolphins. The ruling cleared the way for Mexican and other Latin American tuna producers to place a dolphin-safe label on cans for American shelves."