The Constitutional Chamber accepted a writ of amparo lodged against the government agreement that allowed the issuance of new licenses for trawling. The appeal was filed by environmental lawyer Álvaro Sagot.
The magistrates accepted the complaint on Wednesday, suspending the agreement of the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Incopesca). On November 10th, the Board of Directors of the entity signed an agreement to allow new licenses for semi-industrial shrimp trawling.
Sagot noted that the arguments of the governing fishing body are insufficient. The specialist explained that Incopesca took the agreement, as if it were being forced by the 2013 ruling of the Chamber, when the technique was prohibited.
This is because at that time it was ordered that there should be a legal reform before issuing new licenses.
The lawyer also recalled that there are no studies to demonstrate the sustainability of trawling. Both the Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Limnology (CIMAR) of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and the National University have opposed trawling and the government plan, as well as the bill that is being processed.
In these five years there have not even been studies to determine the amount of shrimp resource that remains in Costa Rican waters.
The president of Incopesca, Gustavo Meneses, admitted that all the studies ordered by the Constitutional Chamber in 2013 have not been carried out. Even so, he, the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock and President Luis Guillermo Solis say that the whole sentence of the Chamber is being complied with.