ABSTRACT
ON APRIL 12, 1990, H.J. HEINZ CO., one of the largest U.S. food processing corporations and the owner of StarKist Seafood, surprised both its competitors and the environmental community when it announced that within three months it would sell only tuna that was “dolphin-safe.” Within hours the country’s two other major tuna brands, Bumble Bee Seafoods and Chicken of the Sea, pledged that they too would stop selling tuna caught in nets proven deadly to dolphins. By the end of that year, Congress would pass and President Bush would sign legislation establishing a federal dolphin-safe label for all tuna sold in the United States. Coming after two years of an intense citizens’ campaign on behalf of dolphins, the companies’ decisions marked a triumph for grassroots environmentalism. The tuna industry’s capitulation to consumer concerns, accompanied by the federal legislation, promised to end the routine killing of 100,000 to 200,000 dolphins every year.
