Why was tuna fishing sch an issue?

Question

Why was tuna fishing sch an issue?

Answer 1

The issue currently is twofold:  1.  The Commercial Tuna Industry is over-fishing, fairly quickly drawing down the population of Tuna in the wild such that it will not readily recover.  This is somewhat debatable, though it has been pretty well established scientifically that Tuna (and other pelagic food fish species) are in decline.  2.  That the long-net (& seine net) tuna harvesting technique damages the environment, leads to much waste and killing of other species of fish and marine mammals (including dolphins).  This is an established fact;  however there is debate over what impact the collateral kill (non food species) has on the total ocean environment.  

It is controversial because the data is interpreted differently depending on which side you lean towards.  

There are Tuna producers who use long-line techniques that are less damaging to the environment and end up killing far fewer non-food species.  Whether this makes any difference as to the health of the species is questionable.

Answer 2

Some tuna are harvested with large seine nets. They lay the net out in a circle around a school of fish, and slowly bring the net in which catches all the tuna inside. It is possible in the process to catch dolphins and the dolphins could die. This fear was accelerated greatly when a radical environmentalist group in the early 80's purchased an old tuna seine boat and took it fishing, armed with video cameras. They made a set in which they purposely caught both tuna and dolphins then took video of themselves mercilessly killing the dolphins.  Their thinking of course was, yes it would be bad to kill these, but they would be in a sense sacrificial because by releasing the video, maybe they could stop tuna fishing all together. They were found out, but the damage had already been done. Most fishermen are very careful not to harm dolphins and other marine mammals. It can happen, but it is extremely rare. The entire tuna fleet here in the US fishes with hook and line, so dolphins are never an issue.

Ultimately, some people just oppose hurting any creature based on their philosophy that all creatures are equal to humans.