by Rod Hughes

The recent documentary film “Sharkwater” that criticized the Costa Rican government’s inaction in curbing the cruel shark finning practice in its Pacific territorial waters first resulted in official denial and then a remarkably elegant solution.

Shark finning is mainly done by foreign commercial fishing vessels and entails the hacking off of the fins from the still-living body of the fish. The body is then dumped overboard, the fins packed for sale to the market in the Orient where myth has it that shark fin soup is an aphrodisiac.

The problem for government enforcement is that only public docks in the main Pacific port of Puntarenas have adequate inspection. Private docks usually have no such oversight, despite the 2005 fishing law that forbids the landing of shark fins not still attached to the carcase.

This is little problem with local commercial fishermen who cut up the whole shark for national consumption. Knowing this, the government has issued a decree that foreign fishing vessels are forbidden to use private docks. The hope is that their few inspectors can concentrate on public docks and catch infractors.

At first the government reacted to the Sharkwater documentary film with anger and denial, claiming it was based upon obsolete information. Officials reacted especially harshly when the film was released in the United States, stung by the damage to their “green” image abroad. But when it began showing in theaters here, environmental groups were galvanized into action.

The Marviva conservation organization enlisted the help of popular musical stars Malpais and circulated a petition. In two days the petition, aimed at spurring government action, jumped from 3,000 signatures to 15,000 report The Tico Times reporter Dave Sherwood.

Another environmental activist group, the Marine Turtle Restoration Program (PRETOMA), weighed into the fray with a clever advertising campaign. All this effort at least produced a government decree but scrutiny will be extremely focused to see if it is enforced. The enforcement arm of the government, INCOPESCA, at first resisted, their executive director Carlos Villalobos saying that the Puntarenas public docks could handle the increased traffic. But they have been dragging their feet from the beginning of the controversay.

While the attention is mainly focused on the port, another accusation raised by the documentary remains unresolved. According to the film, shark finning goes on at Cocos Island, a wildlife sanctuary recognized as a world patrimony. Although aided by the United States in the war against drug traffickers, the Costa Rican Coast Guard is stretched too thin on the Pacific to patrol for poachers on a regular basis. Its anti-narcotics and rescue duties are all it can handle at present.