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Costa Rica Creates New Loophole
for Landing Shark Fins
Costa Rica’s National Fisheries
Institute (INCOPESCA) has
created a new loophole for
landing shark fins by allowing
foreign vessels to completely
cut off shark fins and then land
the fins tied onto shark bodies,
instead of attached in natural
form.
The new Costa Rican Fishery Law,
passed April 25, 2005, requires
shark fins to be landed attached
to their respective bodies.
INCOPESCA’s policy of allowing
fins to be completely cut off
makes it impossible to guarantee
that the fins which are tied
onto a body are its respective
fins, as the law requires.
There are numerous problems
associated with this policy,
which make the New Fishery Law
impossible to apply:
• It allows vessels to very
easily circumvent the law by
tying extra fins onto each body
allowing shark finning.
• The fins of large sharks can
be tied onto small bodies,
allowing shark finning.
• It makes at sea inspections
impossible. With fins and bodies
separate, an inspector
inspecting at sea will have no
way to ensure that shark finning
has not occurred.
• It makes dockside inspections
virtually impossible. Landing
fins tied on means that
inspectors must count every fin
to make sure extra fins are not
tied on. With individual vessels
landing nearly 7.000 sharks in
one landing, counting all the
fins can take days.
• It makes species
identification impossible. Once
fins are completely removed from
bodies, accurate species
identification can only be done
with extremely expensive DNA
tests. Species identification is
imperative for evaluating the
status and health of shark
populations and creating
policies for shark management.
“Just when Costa Rica was
celebrating the passage of our
new Fishery Law, INCOPESCA
creates a loophole that
nullifies the Law and
perpetuates shark finning,”
states Randall Arauz, President
of PRETOMA. “Sadly, INCOPESCA’s
long history of creating
loopholes, has earned Costa Rica
the reputation as a world
renowned shark finning country.”
PRETOMA (Programa Restauración
de Tortugas Marinas) is a Costa
Rican non-profit,
non-governmental, marine
conservation organization that
works to promote responsible
fisheries and protect sea
turtles, sharks and marine
biodiversity. PRETOMA is a
member of the IUCN.
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