Helen and I saw dolphins last night as we were eating dinner (just after I took the above picture). Clearly visible through the window, there were up to 10 of them that kept appearing above the water and arcing back into it again. After a few minutes, they were gone again. They are truly lovely creatures and it made us happy to see them.

Thankfully there are no tuna round the waters of Britain, otherwise life might be more difficult for our dolphins. In the Pacific Ocean, there are both, and this has been a problem for decades now. By 1980, the dolphin population was a ¼ of what it was in 1960. Tuna and dolphins like each others company, so if you find dolphins in the pacific, you find tuna. The fishing method is to chase the dolphins in speedboats and when they get tired, put nets round them, catching both the dolphins and the tuna you really want at the same time.

The picture on this page shows the nets:

http://www.maninnature.com/Fisheries/Tuna/tuna1a.html

About 20 years ago, public annoyance at the declining dolphin population caused a change in the nets so that the dolphins could escape, but this has not helped the dolphin population to recover. It has made no difference: there are still only ¼ of the dolphins there were in 1960. One probable explanation for this is given here:

"Dolphin Numbers Still Low Despite "Safe" Tuna Fishing, Experts Say"

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070326-dolphins_2.html

“… the leading hypothesis is that [females] lose their babies during those chases

Researchers report that they have seen lactating mothers in the nets but so far no babies, indicating that the youngsters are left behind during the chase. If they can't reunite with their mothers, they most likely die”

If this is correct, it’s terrible. Much canned tuna now carries “dolphin safe” labelling to comfort consumers, but if the above hypothesis proves to be the right one, then this is a very false comfort. It’s put very bluntly here:

http://www.highnorth.no/Library/Interaction/Tuna_Dolphin/do-an-tu.htm

“The Dolphin Safe Label: In cooperation with environmental organisations, the major tuna canneries in the USA have introduced and marketed the Tuna Safe Label . The irony of it is that this label only serves to inform that the tuna has not been caught by encircling techniques. Dolphin Safe does not mean that no dolphins were killed. Data from fisheries in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and the Bay of Biscay, where other techniques are used, suggest that the number of dolphins killed per ton of tuna may be from 7 to 17 times higher in other fisheries than in those of the Eastern Tropical Pacific

Dolphin Safe = Environmentally Unsound The techniques that are now used in the Eastern Tropical Pacific lead to a much higher discard of immature tuna and incidental catches like sharks, sea turtles and several species of fish than when the tuna and accompanying dolphins were encircled. What it boils down to is, what are we willing to sacrifice for a dolphin? asks Martin Hall of the IATTC”

If you are a regular tuna eater, this gives something to think about.

To end on a happier note, here is a lovely performance of Tim Buckley singing Dolphins, from The Old Grey Whistle Test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtU-9EMSYu0

“Sometimes I think about Saturday's child
And all about the times when we were running wild

I've been out searching for the dolphins in the sea

Ah, but sometimes I wonder, do you ever think of me
This old world will never change the way it's been
And all the ways of war won't change it back again

I've been out searchin' for the dolphin in the sea

Ah, but sometimes I wonder, do you ever think of me
This old world will never change”

Cheers, Tom.