REFLECTIONS / EARTH DAY 1970-1990 : ‘Things just aren’t perfect in this world . . . we’re not perfect.’

August Felando is president of the American Tunaboat Assn.

What no one seems to understand, complains 61-year-old August Felando, is that tuna fishermen love porpoises, too, and take no joy in killing them.

“We have our own cult about the porpoise,” said Felando, a third-generation fisherman. “We have drawings of them on our boats and each year we present the Golden Porpoise award to the skipper with the best record in saving porpoises while bringing in a good catch.”

Even so, Felando and the tuna fishermen he represents have been caught up in one of the most divisive environmental issues of the past 20 years, one that took a stunning turn only last week.

Bowing to consumer pressure, the three biggest U.S. companies in the tuna industry announced in rapid succession that they no longer will use fish caught through methods that harm porpoises, which often are called dolphins.

For reasons not fully understood, dolphins swim with tuna and become trapped in the broad nets used by many fishermen. Some estimates place the number of dolphins killed annually at 200,000--a figure Felando insists has been grossly inflated. He says the average is 12,643 a year.

Felando said the surprise announcement last Wednesday by StarKist Seafood Co., Bumble Bee Seafoods and Van Kamp Seafood Co. was the result of “economic and political pressure by people who claim they are environmentalists” and “use our problem to make an appeal to the public for tax-exempt funds.”

He said “it is very disappointing and dispiriting” for the U.S. tuna fleet to be “vilified” by environmental groups.

“They know we cannot guarantee to the public that every time we use our procedures to release porpoises (from nets) that everything will work perfectly. We don’t deny that there is mortality; all we are saying is that we are doing the best we can. Things just aren’t perfect in this world, and we’re not perfect.”