Costa Rica prohibits import and export of shark fins. Richard Branson calls it “fantastic” and “historic day!”

In today’s La Nación newspaper we happily read about Costa Rica prohíbe importar y exportar aletas de tiburón.

Authorities have now closed several legal loopholes that have allowed shark finning to take place.

By an executive order signed yesterday 10th October 2012, Costa Rica has banned the import and export of shark fins obtained by shark finning.

It also prohibits the transfer of fins between vessels at sea, something that until now was not forbidden.

“We have to recognize that there were those who were mocking the fishing ban, fishing in our waters, but selling shark fin through import mechanisms”, said yesterday the president of the Republic, Laura Chinchilla, in Manuel Antonio National Park , where she signed the decree with his ministers of Environment, René Castro, and Agriculture, Gloria Abrahams.

Chinchilla said she received several calls, one even yesterday morning, not to sign the decree.

Only fins. Finning is a practice of catching a shark, cutting off their fins and the rest of the animal returned alive to the sea, where they die.

The fins are the commercially most valuable portions of the animal, due to high demand they have in some Asian cultures, where consumption is attributed several medicinal properties.

According to the Trade Office, this year we have exported the equivalent of $102,903 (over ¢50 million) in shark fins to Hong Kong.

In order to get around the law in recent years fishermen chose to catch the sharks and remove the fins in Costa Rican waters but then transport the fins by sea to nearby countries (15 tons of fins from Nicaragua alone) and then import them by land to Costa Rica.

The Environment Minister René Castro, said the waste of the remains of the animals with finning is what allowed them to prohibit the importation of fins, and said he was sure that the decree is “shielded” from any future complaints before the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Castro said that last year alone, finning was responsible for the deaths of between 350,000 and 400,000 sharks in Costa Rican waters.

Randall Arauz, representative of the Sea Turtle Restoration Program (Pretoma) and one of the people who has most criticized finning in the country, was pleased with the decision. “Since the adoption of the Fisheries Act, those who traffic in shark fins found different loopholes. The next step should be an integrated management of the seas,” said Arauz.

During the signing of the decree was present British entrepreneur Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Group, who a couple of weeks also wrote asking Chinchilla stop finning.

Branson congratulated the president for the decision, calling it “fantastic”, and said that Wednesday was “a historic day” for Costa Rica.

This Costa Rica prohíbe importar y exportar aletas de tiburón. was translated by Scott Oliver.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.