Countdown, December 1^st.

November 25, 2010 – San José, Costa Rica)

Through an official communication of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock MAG (CP-078-2010), Minister Gloria Abrahan Peralta announced she had reached an agreement with the Costa Rican fishery sector, to close the private docks of Puntarenas to the foreign shark finning fleet as of December 1^st, obligating them to land their products in the public dock of Barrio el Carmen, as is established by law.  This measure would mean the government would finally be abiding by Articles 211 y 212 of Costa Rica’s Customs Law, which mandate the use of public infrastructure for the importation of products.

Since January of 2006, the Constitutional Court pointed out by omitting such articles, the State was putting sharks as great risk due to their irrational exploitation (04-001511-0007-CO), and ordered the MAG, the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute, Customs, Public Transportation Ministry and Environment Ministry, to halt all landings at docks that were not equipped with public infrastructure, the only way to protect the public interest and guarantee that shark finning laws are abided by.  This call was seconded by the General Comptrollership of the Republic in February of 2007 (DFOE-PGA-86/2006), and by the Environment Commission of the Costa Rican Congress (EXPEDIENTE Nº16.890).  Currently, the aforementioned institutions have refused to abide by the law and binding mandates, releasing foreign fleets from the responsibility of abiding by our national laws.  Not only shark finning is facilitated by leaving the public interest unprotected, so is drug trafficking and slave running, as has been duly exposed by the national press.

“We aren’t celebrating yet”, said a skeptical Randall Arauz, President of the Costa Rican non profit organization Pretoma.  “We have closed the private docks to the foreign fleets in two ocassions, once in 2004 and another in 2007, but sadly, our authorities figure out ways to open them again, so as to not affect this million dollar business”, denounced Arauz.

Pretoma will continue to watch dog these operations, and will keep the public informed on the development of events during the next week.

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