There are many ways you can help.  Other than signing this petitions, you can support us by distributing this message to friends, relatives and partners.  We have attached a pdf version of the petition for you to download, print, and distribute.

Please, send a letter to President Abel Pacheco, by email ( ), or FAX (506) 253 9078.

Don't forget to send a copy to Congressman Quírico Jiménez, President of the Permanent Environment Commission,  , FAX (506) 243-2436.

Of course, don't forget to send us a copy for our records( )

Another option is for you to just send us a short message be email saying that you support the letter to President Pacheco to save the sharks, with your name, address, and affiliation, and we will add your name to a sign on letter.

Shark Conservation Campaign

A Call to the President of Costa Rica to avoid the extermination of sharks from our waters.

As Costa Rican citizens concerned about the future of our country's marine resources, we are making an urgent call to Dr. Abel Pacheco, President of Costa Rica, to help carry out the needed changes in our country's fishery policy, in order to guarantee the long term survival of the target species that sustain the national economy, as well endangered marine species that are threatened by their incidental capture and death during commercial fishery operations.

The future of the sharks is a great particular concern, not only because their reproductive biology does not allow them to compensate fishery induced death through biological recruitment, but because of the monumental directed fishing effort they have been subject to, unprecedented in history, during the last two decades.  The "finning" of sharks, which consists of hacking off the shark's fins and discarding the body at sea, sometimes alive, exacerbates the problem.  This brutal and disgraceful practice, isn't only a waste of valuable fishery resources, it also accelerates over fishing, resource depletion, and species extinction.

During this massive fishing effort, numerous endangered marine species are also captured, particularly sea turtles.  Sadly, Eastern Pacific leatherback turtles are first on a tragic list of endangered species which may soon suffer imminent extinction due to their incidental capture and death during fishery operations in the Eastern Pacific.  Of 91,000 nesting females that occurred in the Pacific only 20 years ago, recent estimates put numbers around 5,000.  Unless urgent measures are taken to stop the mortality of adult leatherback sea turtles, the world's largest reptile may soon be extinct.  The Eastern Pacific leatherback crisis is a sad omen that announces the extinction of numerous marine species, and may significantly alter the balance of the marine ecosystem.

Costa Rica is a very important player in the region's fisheries.  We don't only have the largest fishing fleet of Latin America, we also allow the landing of fishery products from hundreds of vessels from nations as far as Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

As of February 12 of 2001, through an official Costa Rican Fisheries Institute Board of Directors Agreement (# 47-2001), our country forbids the practice of finning, and mandates domestic and foreign fleets alike to land shark carcasses with fins attached.  This action, designed to reduce fishing effort on sharks and promote their rational management, was internationally acclaimed.

Nonetheless, in spite of the coordinated actions to enforce this regulation among environmentalists, academic organizations, the local private fishery sector, and national authorities, the magnitude and impact of the international fleets is just devastating, and threatens no only the sustainability of the fishery activity and the survival of diverse marine species, but also the ability to reach a sustainable management of sharks and other fishery resources in the future.

On one hand, foreign vessels that allegedly operate in international waters but land products in Costa Rica, are commonly caught operating illegally within the waters of our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).  Due to the lack of a Fishery Law, violators can not be penalized, and are freed to continue the theft of our fishery resources with impunity.

On the other, in spite of legislation that forbids finning, foreing vessels continue with this practice and commonly land enormous volumes of shark fins alone.  To scoff the laws, they simply land their products on Saturdays or Sundays, or outside of business hours (after 5:00 pm).  Even when inspectors are present, they are not present during the whole landing process.  Nobody knows for sure how many sharks fins these foreign vessels land, nor where they were caught.  Information on the species implicated and associated biometric data (size, sex, weight), indispensable for the establishment of management measures, is also lacking.

INCOPESCA claims they can not control the situation due to the lack of legislation, and economic and human resources.  Is this poor and usual excuse enough to allow the continued massacre of sharks and the extinction of leatherback sea turtles, against the interests of the Costa Rican people and to the benefit of foreign fleets?  Of course NOT!

We, the undersigned, are making a call to President Pacheco, for him to ensure that the following measures are taken:

• Immediately suspend the permits granted to foreign fleets which allow them to land shark products in Costa Rica, until legal mechanisms and political will exists to supervise these landing efficiently.
• Approve the Fishery Law in the Costa Rican Congress.
• Establish an INCOPESCA observer program on board domestic and international fleets as well as at dock sides, to study the capture of sharks and initiate their management, as well as the implementation of measures and technologies to mitigate the impact of commercial fisheries on sea turtles.
• Include organizations of the civil society as well as the private sector in the operations of control, monitoring, certification and biological research in this field.
• Lobby internationally for the reduction of fishing effort in the Eastern Pacific and comply with responsible fishery guidelines according to the criteria of the Code of Responsible Fisheries of FAO of 1995.
• Establish a marine conservation program in the Ministry of the Environment.

These measures will highlight the international image of Costa Rica as a conservation minded country, and will benefit an array of marine resources as well as the peoples' of the region who depend on a healthy and stable marine environment to make a living, and will keep certain endangered marine species, such as sharks and sea turtles, from vanishing from our oceans.

Sincerely,

Name              Address             Affiliation             Signature