2007 The UN Year of The Dolphin
Let us all hope it is a better year for our Dolphins.
Living in oceans and rivers, dolphins are a living treasure of our blue planet. However their survival is becoming increasingly difficult. Dolphins need clean and quiet oceans, protected areas and people who care, people like you and I.
The UN Convention on Migratory Species, together with its specialized agreements on dolphin conservation ACCOBAMS and ASCOBANS and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society WDCS have declared 2007 the Year of the Dolphin.
Dolphin Care UK would like to invite you to help us and our dolphins, DC UK has chosen 2007 for our concerted and concentrated blitz on our supermarkets.
DC UK have for the past two years, been concentrating on the American concept of "Dolphin Friendly" labeling of our sea food, such as Tuna and Sea bass.
Every year hundreds of dolphins die around our coasts due to By-Catch and thousands of dolphins around the world, they are dying an agonizing death by drowning in the nets of greedy fisheries.
"The Year of the Dolphin gives us the opportunity to renew our firm commitment towards protecting marine biodiversity. With this strong initiative we can make a difference to save these fascinating marine mammals from the brink of extinction."
To many dolphins are being killed needlessly around our coasts and around the world, the time has come for this to stop.
Even if you do not live near to the coast, you can still help to save a dolphins life by choosing dolphin friendly products.
We at DC UK are pushing for all supermarkets and fish suppliers to only accept fish from fisheries that are friendly to our dolphins.
This is a massive undertaking, supermarkets are so competitive in their pricing they do not seem to be bothered where their supplies come from.
Their attitude has to be changed and it is with your help that this will be achieved, look at the product you intend to buy if it does not state on the label it is "Dolphin Friendly" do not buy it, ask a supervisor at the supermarket you shop in this question.... "Why is it not labeled Dolphin Friendly"?
They will probably tell you they do not know, that is not their fault it is the fault of the supermarkets buyers, they are the ones responsible for buying products for their bosses at cut price.
This is still no excuse for dolphins to die, so supermarkets can buy cheaper products to compete with their competitors, they are in this for profit and so are the fisheries who kill hundreds and thousands of dolphins every year.
The Dolphins around our coasts need your help, to "stay alive", please help them and DC UK to make this happen.
What you can do.!
When you are in your supermarket and you intend to buy tuna or sea bass, look for labels like this one shown here.
If you do not see the label on the product, ask the manager of the supermarket this question "Is this product Dolphin Friendly"?
Explain to them you only intend to buy products that have not caused dolphins to die in the process or capture of the product.
If they act as if they do not know, point them to our website.
2007 will see DC UK publishing a full list of Supermarkets and other sellers of sea food, such as tuna and sea bass that display the "Dolphin Safe" logo.
We will be visiting all the major supermarkets and less known stores, to carry out further research and to find out how many have taken on board this new labeling system.
For those supermarkets that ignore the public and the Dolphin Safe logo, we will publish their names and locations and ask the general public to boycott these places.
We will keep putting pressure on these supermarkets till we are more than sure, that they believe in selling products that have not helped to kill dolphins.
The picture of a dead common dolphin is a familiar sight on our beaches, this dolphin had had it's stomach cut open to try and sink it to the bottom of the English channel.
Sights like this will continue to happen, until the fisheries stop catching them in their massive nets.
This practice must stop, with your help we can make this happen, if the fisheries are made to capture their intended prey without killing dolphins.
When you next visit your supermarket, check the label on your intended purchase, if it does not have the "Dolphin Safe" logo on it - Don't buy it.
To find out more about the labeling system, please visit this website: Dolphin Safe
For more information regarding Europe visit this website: EDSMO
Dolphin Care UK, cares about dolphins - Do You?
Check this page for Supermarkets and other suppliers of fish products, that Are or are Not "Dolphin Safe" in the UK. This page will be updated often.
Suppliers of "Dolphin Safe" Products, and those Who are not.
Please keep checking this page, this project is on going and will be updated on regular intervals as we accumulate information.