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Alert! A clarification of "Greenpeace" positions on "Dolphin Safety"! As this is being written, the dolphin-protection laws of the United States are well on their way to being perverted. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce has ignored the best scientific evidence - including his own scientists - and falsely declared that there is no evidence that setting giant nets intentionally on dolphins is harming them. This decision - which is now under challenge in the courts by pro-dolphin organizations - was the final legal step in adopting the "Dolphin Death Act" which passed the U.S. Congress in 1997. Under provisions of this Act, the U.S. Government has (at Mexico's behest) fraudulently redefined the term "dolphin safe" to allow (and even mandate!) dolphin kills, while blocking the information flow from truly "dolphin safe" fishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, and throwing open the U.S. marketplace to dolphin-deadly tuna. This is widely viewed as the bellwether issue in the epic confrontation between the WTO and all national environmental-protection laws. It has been widely reported that "Greenpeace" supported the Dolphin Death Act" which passed congress in late '97, and has gutted U.S. dolphin-safe standards in a bailout of dolphin-killing nations. In fact, this anti-dolphin stand was by the organization Greenpeace USA. Greenpeace Foundation, the Greenpeace organization which created the international "greenpeace" dolphin campaign and conducted the highest-profile Greenpeace campaigns for a dolphin-safe fishery, has been a strong member of the 85-organization Dolphin Safe/Fair Trade Coalition (DSFTC) and strongly opposed this anti-dolphin legislation. (For an explanation of the existence of two "Greenpeace" entities in the U.S. see The Greenpeace Movement) The DSFTC lost the legislative fight largely because of "green cover" provided to the U.S. administration by the defection of 5 "big green" groups, Greenpeace USA the most prominent among them. Well-funded GPUSA lobbyists worked behind the scenes to oppose the pro-dolphin campaign of the DSFTC. The result, if the reworded new law is allowed to be fully implemented, will be many thousands of additional dolphin deaths. As Greenpeace Foundation (this organization) co-founded GPUSA in 1980, and created its "dolphin" program in 1982, we have been apalled at that organization's recent use of the "Greenpeace" name to push a "free trade" agenda over the welfare of the dolphins. It is irony of the worst kind that an organization and program we set up to help the dolphins has been used as a force against them. It gives us the responsibility, we feel, to set the record straight regarding Greenpeace and dolphins. As for the valid question of how this is even possible - how could an environmental organization like GPUSA join with the anti-environmental congressmen, the "wise use" movement, and the dolphin-killing tuna nations against the dolphins? - it may be instructive to read the section in this site on "The Greenpeace Movement". In this "special alert" section, we'll just keep to the reality of what has happened: GPUSA using its donors' money to push an anti-dolphin treaty that helps Central American nations sell their dolphin-deadly tuna to the U.S. public under a deceptively re-defined "dolphin safe" label. By clicking on the links below, you can acquaint yourself with the facts on what we see as a blatant sellout of the dolphins, and a refutation of the arguments and outright lies used in gutting U.S. dolphin-safe law.
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The USA's oldest and original Greenpeace, proudly unaffiliated with Greenpeace USA