We're chasing [shark finners] out, country by country

Leslie Josephs

22/04/2010

Opinión

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Costa Rica is famed for its stringent environmental policies compared with its Latin American neighbors. Randall Arauz, biologist and environmentalist has spent two decades fighting for stricter environmental policies when governments repeatedly tried to sidestep the law for economic gain. Arauz, founder of the environmental activist organization Pretoma, was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for his work to end shark finning. Thanks in part to his organizations' protest, shark finning is banned in Costa Rica, even though shark fishing is legal. Latinamerica Press editor Leslie Josephs spoke with Arauz in San Jose about his organization, the campaign against shark finning and outgoing President Oscar Arias' environmen! tal legacy.

What did your prize-winning work against shark finning entail?

It's kind of incredible when you think about it. This is a small organization if you compare it with anything else. We have a US$200,000 a year budget and we've had a great influence on Costa Rican policy and working with the government of Costa Rica which has embraced these policies and shark finning laws. We've been to the UN. And now the whole world is following what is known as the “Costa Rican shark finning policy.” Back in 2003 and 2004 there were all these debates on how to stop shark finning and Costa Rica was one of the first nations of the world to say, “Why don't we just ask the fishermen to bring the sharks with their fins attached? We're not saying don't fish sharks, but let's stop the shark finning, let's stop the waste. It's very easy and it's been hell. Lots of lawsuits; we had to fight the fishing industry. But eventually it prevailed in Costa Rica and now it's our law. Now we're being followed by other countries: Colombia, Ecuador,! Panama, El Salvador, the US. All these nations now have the same policy. Shark finning nations like Spain, China, Taiwan. They like other complicated systems. It first became regulation in Costa Rica in 2001. Landing the shark with the fin attached is no problem if you're a local fisherman. But if you're freezing the product and you've been out at sea for four or five months and you bring back these rock-hard frozen sharks, you can't just chop the fin off.

It wasn't until August 2006 when the regulation was finally implemented.

What is the effect of finning sharks on the environment?

This could have a devastating effect on different levels in Costa Rica. The whole food chain will collapse. And we're already seeing some major changes in different parts of the world.

We do know for instance that from 1991 to 2000 the shark population in Costa Rica declined 60 percent, and of course fishing has been going on even longer than that.

It's going to take 15-20 years before we see any recovery. What we have been able to see is that we used to have 400 internationally flagged vessels a year landing shark fins. Now we only have 100. Several of these boats went to El Salvador. We went to El Salvador and campaigned.... and the fleet moved to Guatemala. So basically, we're chasing them out, country by country.

How much do you think it generates a year?

Costa Rica exports between 500 and 700 tons of shark fins a year. It used to be higher. The fishermen get paid anywhere from $70 to $100 a kilo. We go to customs and the fishermen declare $10 a kilo, so they take taxes out for $10 a kilo. So how much money is being made is anyone's guess. The big market is Hong Kong. The whole shark fin market, I think all over the world, but at least here in Central America, it's all dominated by the Taiwanese.

What about Ecuador, which allows the unintentional fishing of sharks?

It's too bad what happen in Ecuador. Ecuador was one of the first and probably one of the boldest nations because they forbid the fishing of sharks altogether. But then Ecuador, a country with lots of corruption, so lots of fins were being exported illegally to Colombia. There were several busts. There was lots of debates on how efficient is having this measure anyway because the truth is, lots of fishermen are not fishing sharks; they're fishing dorado, swordfish, and the sharks are incidental. So if they catch a shark incidentally, they don't mind. They get a hundred dollars for a set of sharkfins. It's not that they're targeting the sharks, but they can sometimes catch a great many. Any when does it stop being incidental? The measure was actually good, but [President Rafael Correa] changed the policy, and now they have to land the sharks with the fins attached and they forbid targeting sharks.

What do you think of the environmental policies of outgoing President Oscar Arias?

Oscar Arias has been notorious. Right before the end of his administration, he's blowing off these regulations. It's been a disaster, so many steps back. Several steps forward that took so many years, like with the gold mining moratorium [issued by former President Abel] Pacheco. And even with this shark issue. We advance in certain areas, like with the shark “fins attached” [rule], but then we have all these international boats finning sharks and landing them in Costa Rica. What's up with that? We're landing on private docks in Puntarenas illegally. The Customs Law says that to import products into the country you must use a public facility and these guys are landing in private docks. And we even have a Constitutional Court ruling from 2006 saying that's illegal and they're still not abiding by that. That's our big issue now and it's something that we're not going to let go. —Latinamerica Press.

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