Costa Rica News – There are many side of the story when it comes to illegal shark finning in Costa Rica. The question out there now that needs to be answered is not whether or not the Costa Rican government is involved but how high up does it go?
The biggest critic of Costa Rica’s shark finning policies is Captain Paul Watson from Sea Shepherd. He had stated that Costa Rican government officials were involved in the trade and now it seems like his claims are starting to be validated with recent events.
Prosecutors have lodged a criminal complaint in Puntarenas against Luis Dobles, the Executive President of the National Institute of Fishing and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA). The charges are for involvement in a shark fin poaching operation. You read that right, the President of the Costa Rican government organization that is in charge of protecting the sea life has been charged with shark finning the Costa Rican waters.
The MSP (Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Safety) has accused Dobles of authorizing the offloading of finless sharks in Puntarenas. The complaint specifies that he allowed a fishing vessel from Belize to dock although a better purchase offer was received from El Salvador. The boat returned five days later.
This fits with a tactic to avoid the law. The fishermen legally catch sharks but then illegally hack off their fins and leave them to die. The boat docks and the crew fakes selling the catch, which is actually shark fins.
The complaint is filed under docket 11-2032-431 PE and is awaiting resolution in criminal court. If the charges are deemed accurate, it would vindicate the idea that officials in Costa Rica have been secretly working with shark fin poachers and fin trade.
The courts in Puntarenas are busy with a few of these shark finning cases. They have processed seven related complaints in just two years.
As the outside world looks in on Costa Rica and how internally they are trying to promote their “green image”, it seems it is only a matter of time before the truth is revealed from behind the smoke and mirrors.
Let’s count the ways that Costa Rica has pushed away tourists in the past few months: Jairo Mora’s murder, drug cartels setting up shop in Costa Rica, getting in a pointless debate with Daniel Ortega about something that is not going to happen, and continually allowing the destruction of your environment.
But I guess we should have come to expect it from governments around the world as they sign bills into place in order to protect their image and have no plan on actually enforcing and implementing these laws.
Costa Rica your actions are in complete contradiction in regards to the environmental “green” image you are trying to portray to the world and at some point no amount of marketing is going to be able to hide the truth.
Captain Paul Watson’s claims about Costa Rica and it’s shark finning are currently coming into fruition.
