Historic
Collaboration of NGOs, and Costa Rican Citizen Groups call on
Government urging "No Al Aleteo! Que se Cumpla la Ley en los Muelles
Privados!"
September 12, 2004 - San Jose, Costa Rica A confederation of 14
NGOs as well as citizen, student and community groups make a vigorous
call to Aduanas and the President urging that the Costa Rican halt its
support for shark finning.
Right
now the Costa Rican government is considered both at home and by shark
experts around the world to be a major culprit in the shark finning
issue.
Why?
Costa Rican Law clearly states that to
receive landings by foreign vessels: "Los muelles privados deberán
obtener la habilitación correspondiente mediante resolución de la
Dirección General para realizar sus operaciones de llegada o salida de
vehículos, carga o descarga de mercancías".
However, not one single private dock has received the necessary Customs authorization.
In spite of the lack of authorization, Customs encourages foreign vessels to illegally land at the unauthorized private docks.
Given
the private nature of these docks not even the National Ombudsman, not
even the Director of Customs, not even the President has free access to
supervise these landings.
This allows the foreign vessels to land hundreds of tons of shark fins at private docks with no supervision.
"These
vessels are not only being encouraged by the Costa Rican government to
irresponsibly wipe out ocean resources, but it also means they can
avoid paying import taxes behind the walls of the private docks," says
Jorge Ballestero, Vice President of PRETOMA.
"This is a huge
environmental and monetary loss for the people of Costa Rica and
inviting these large vessels to land here is tremendously harmful to
the national fishermen who cannot compete with larger foreign vessels,"
continues Ballestero.
Given all the impacts of not enforcing
this law, 14 NGOs, students from grade school through university and
community groups from both Puntarenas and San Jose will be
demonstrating in Puntarenas on the 17th of September.
"It's time
for Aduanas to enforce its law," says Randall Arauz, President of
PRETOMA. "This one simple step will protect the public interest,
protect the ocean environment for future generations, protect our
national fishermen, protect the economy of Puntarenas, ensure import
taxes are paid and return to the Costa Rican government the respect of
the world as a leader in responsible marine conservation."
PRETOMA
is a Costa Rican non-profit, non-governmental, marine conservation
organization that works to promote responsible fisheries and protect
sea turtles, sharks and marine biodiversity. Contact
.
