Dolphin Dangers

The dolphin-safe label on tuna cans is important because the dolphin population has decreased through the years due to the dolphins getting stuck in fish nets. For example, since 1960, more than seven million dolphins have died from getting caught in fish nets. Dolphins breath from the top of their bodies, and need to go above the water for air in order to survive. When they get stuck, they run out of air and die. We should stop this killing at once! Dolphins don’t hurt humans, why do people hurt them?

Also, dolphins need a large fishing supply to eat to survive. Dolphins have been hurt by an over-fishing by fisherman who are catching fish in excess amounts that end up going bad because they cannot sell all of the fish. This is taking away the dolphins food supply and ends of killing them in the process.

Dolphins follow schools of fish when they are hungry. When the fish go into the nets, so do the dolphins. As a result, the nets are acting like a trap for many dolphins as well as fish. In 1972, the United States government passed a law limiting the number of dolphins that could be killed yearly by tuna fishing crews, but that only helped a little. Improved fishing technology also greatly reduced the number of dolphins killed yearly by human beings.

In 1990, leading U.S. tuna-canning companies announced that they would refuse to except tuna caught in nets that also kill dolphins. I think that we should make a new system where no dolphins will get killed and the dolphins will be able to catch their own food without getting killed. I hope that this year, 2003, all the dolphins that die, should die from old age.

Another way that dolphins are being killed illegally are through construction sites that are built near water and are destroying the coastal breeding and food grounds for dolphins. In China an airport terminal was built that destroyed the feeding grounds and shallow marine habitat near the waters.

A second problem is the dumping of sewage into the water. Cleaning products with aerosal sprays and other fluids that get dunped into sewers and trickle down into the water and have killed dolphins. 150,000 cubic meters of sewage are being dumped into western waters every year and it is really hurting the dolphin population.

Finally, there is the problem of dolphins being hit and killed by boats. Dolphins sometimes swim in shallow waters and boats have killed several dolphins when the dolphins swim up to the surface to get air.

Dolphins are important mammals in the marine community and these precious mammals must be protected and the killing of them must stop before it is too late.