by Rod Hughes

Good evening, Welcome to Costa Rica. May we recommend the fish or seafood?

As the final article of a five-part series in the English-language newspaper, The Tico Times, on Costa Rica’s endangered commercial fishing industry, writer Dave Sherwood turned to the concerns of the consumer. He discovered that, despite pollution of offshore waters, the seafood that one eats here is safe.

This is despite what Sherwood calls “the country’s dirty little secret,” that 97% of greywater and sewage is wantonly dumped into rivers to be carried to the ocean. And perhaps why routinely the laboratory of the National Animal Heath Sergvice (SENASA) tests random samples of tuna and other offshore catches that find their way into markets and restaurants.

The lab claims this food is well within safe levels of contaminants. Migratory fish such as tuna, shark accumulate more mercury over time but even the big ones here are under international safety levels. Ditto for E. coli and other bacteria, mainly because the lab catches a developing problem before the catch reaches market.

Not willing to trust government bureaucracy to give them the straight story, the paper bought two fish at Puntarenas markets, one as ultra clean as the lab and the other at the scruffiest market reporters could find. The corvina and the snapper were tested the next day at a private lab. Both tested well below U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards for mercury, an element traces of which occurs in nature as well as in industrial pollution. (Pregnant women are advised to check with their doctors before eating the fruit of the seas.)

Experts warn that while the country’s shellfish appear generally safe, mussels and clams certain localized areas such as the mouth of the Tarcoles River have tested abnormally high in heavy metals.

Still, The Tico Times series noted that a lack of transparency in testing led to local shrimp fishermen being shut out of the lucrative European Union’s market. But that ban is due for review.

When one contrasts these findings with the recent recalls in the United States if various animal products mass produced in seemingly pristine conditions, Costa Rica appears in a favorable light. Bon apetite!