The Marviva Foundation denounced that the Government is yielding to the pressures, threats and interests of shark fishers. According to the Foundation this is obvious by the fact that a new Executive Decree transfers the preservation of threatened sharks to the Ministry of Agriculture and INCOPESCA.
INCOPESCA will now determine whether or not a species is of fishing interest and whether or not it is possible to export hammerhead shark or other endangered species depending on interest for the industry and not on the sustainability of the species.
With this decree, the Government eliminated the participation of scientific experts from NGOs, the academy, and the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), as previously done, leaving the decision in the hands of INCOPESCA, whose Board of Directors is managed by the interests of the fishermen themselves.
Although Costa Rica is part of the CITES Convention, an international treaty that ensures the survival of endangered wild animals and plants, the government ignores the regulation that requires the appointment of an administrative authority and a scientific authority to authorize or not the export of threatened species.
Until late last week, the administrative authority was integrated by the National System of Areas of Conservation (SINAC) and the scientific authority was the Council of Representatives of Scientific Authorities (CRAC-CITES), formed by state universities, INCOPESCA, SENASA, the fishing sector and an NGO representative.
Since 2015, the government has had the decree regulating the composition of CRAC-CITES to include representatives from the fishing sector. Still, last April the new CRAC-CITES decided to maintain the export ban on hammerhead shark fins because this species is endangered.
After knowing that decision, the fishing sector, on the initiative of the long-liners, announced a protest in the coasts on May 2nd, and Government rushed to negotiate. After these “negotiations” the fishing sector announced that it suspended its protest and eight days later the decree was published.