How you can Help Dolphin Care UK
We urgently need your help in our campaign to stop dolphin deaths in fishing nets.
More whales, dolphins and porpoises die every year by getting entangled in fishing gear than from any other threat. Small whales, dolphins and porpoises are most vulnerable because they generally aren't strong enough to break free and come to the surface to breathe. For these smaller cetaceans, entanglement can cause death by drowning.
Urgent action is needed to change fishing practices. The cost of bycatch to the ocean ecosystems is immense, and fisheries with substantial levels of bycatch are clearly neither acceptable nor sustainable.
Use of selective fishing methods can reduce bycatch. Governments should introduce clear bycatch reduction targets. Fisheries unable to meet these targets should simply be closed. Fishing laws should include routine and compulsory monitoring of bycatch. Observers should be required in key fishing sectors to gather proper data on bycatch. Comprehensive monitoring schemes, using observers and other methods, have reduced bycatch in past trials.
The UK government knows about these needless dolphin deaths but has failed to take adequate action. Now we're taking the problem from our beaches direct to the politicians.
This is where you can help, simply write a letter to your MP and get members of your family to write also. Get your friends to do the same.
Let us swamp the in tray's of our MP's with thousands of letters, till they get sick of recieving them and action is taken to help stop the deaths of our dolphins.
You can also help by eating dolphin friendly products that bear this logo
Tuna, particularly yellowfin, often swim with schools of dolphins, and some tuna fishing methods catch the dolphins at the same time, killing or injuring them. Claims that tuna is 'dolphin safe' or 'dolphin friendly' supposedly mean these methods weren't used.
When we asked the major manufacturers about the 'dolphin safe' logo we got mostly vague responses. One assured us that all incoming shipments to its canneries must be accompanied by a 'dolphin safe' certificate signed by the seller and also a signed captain's statement certifying that the fish is 'dolphin safe'. But what credibility do these documents have when there's little independent inspection?
The most likely tuna to end up in a can is skipjack, followed by yellowfin. Skipjack's one of the smaller species and also the most abundant. The meat has a darkish colour, sometimes slightly pinkish, and a more fishy taste then some other tuna species. When there's no specific species mentioned on the label the fish is most likely to be skipjack - or a combination of skipjack and yellowfin.
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