The appeal was announced by Commerce Department Secretary William Daley with the strong endorsement of the State Department . Daley has asked the Justice Department to take all steps necessary to expedite the appeal, which will be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. The agreement among the United States, Mexico, and a number of other foreign nations became effective in March 1999. The IDCP is designed to continue the international efforts that have succeeded in lowering dolphin mortality from certain tuna fishery operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean by 99 percent over the past decade. If they can't sell their tuna here, they'll sell it to countries that do not require the same dolphin protection standards.
International problems demand international solutions.
And we believe that we have successfully negotiated an effective international agreement with other tuna fishing nations that will reduce dolphin mortality. Tuna caught by vessels larger than 400 tons carrying capacity in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean using purse seines to encircle dolphins are not now eligible for the dolphin-safe label. The court order from which the United States is appealing today had set aside a Commerce Department initial finding published in May 1999. Commerce official Penelope Dalton, the head of the National Marine Fisheries Service , had found insufficient scientific evidence that continued purse seine fishing was having a significant adverse impact on three groups of dolphins whose numbers had declined since the early 1960s, when purse seine fishing became widespread in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Several other major environmental groups, including Greenpeace , the World Wildlife Fund , the Center for Marine Conservation , and the Environmental Defense Fund , all supported the government's position.