by Rod Hughes

Costa Rica’s territorial waters, only a drop in the planet’s oceans, contain 6,778 species of marine life, or 3.5% of the species on the planet. This is pretty good, since the tiny area comprises only .16% of the all oceans’ surface area. This information is revealed in the new book by Ingo Wehrtmann and Jorge Cortes of the University of Costa Rica.

The new 550-page publication, besides providing wonderful statistics to casually drop at a cocktail party, is the first real inventory of Costa Rican waters and was compiled from information provided by 54 scientic writers, 24 of them Costa Ricans. All of the book’s contents is new, 21st century data.

But lest you think that the country’s waters provide an endless cornucopia of seafood, remember that 1,300 of those species are gastropods like sea snails. The fish comprise only 17% of the species while largely inedible species, like sea slugs, make up 22%. Even sea mammals like dolphins, orcas and whales, are in the minority, only 24 species, while ocean worms number 400.

Still, the combined studies show that, like the tiny Costa Rican land mass, the country’s surrounding ocean is a treasure trove worth guarding with fierce dedication. This is especially true on a planet turning increasingly hostile to that which creeps, swims, walks, hops and flies.

by Rod Hughes

The Environmental Tribunal shut down three condominium projects yesterday because of damage to the habitat. They are the “Costa Montana” and “Hermosa Vista” condo projects near Jaco Beach as well as “Hills of Esterillos” at Parrita, totalling 360 dwellings in all.

According to the tribunal, an autonomous institution of the Environment Ministry, development of these projects resulted in leveled mountains, dead trees, drainage choked by sediment and danger to wetlands. “The case of the Parrita project is disagreeable, where they didn’t even have construction permits,” commented tribunal chief Jose Lino Chaves.

He added that Hills of Esterillos put up 36 houses where they had authorization for only six and had plans for another 64 units. In contrast, Costa Montana had all their municipal and environmental permits but proceeded to build in protected zones and on slopes of more than 60 degrees. In that project, the government shares the blame, however, in that SENTENA (an environmental watchdog agency, supposedly) issued the permit based upon the notion that the area was “pasture.”

Far from pasture, the zone is mountainous, covered with secondary forests and an important aquifer to supply water to nearby populations. This is the second case in a few months (see previous blog) in which the environmental watchdogs have proven blind, leading observers to wonder if inspections are ever made on prospective development sites before building begins. In this instance, the tribunal made eight on-site inspections, but only after the damage had been done to three. Only two were totally in harmony with nature.

Only 15 minutes from Jaco Beach, preparation of the Hermosa Vista project resulted in “destruction of the worst proportions, where a mountain was literally bulldozed to make way for terraces on which to build 100 homes,” the tribunal said.

by Rod Hughes

An error in a law passed three years ago inadvertantly leaves open Costa Rican territorial waters, including wildlife perserve Cocos Island, to illegal fishing. The error was not discovered until the prosecution of the tuna fishing boat Tiuna Jan. 29.

The law was aimed at tightening up regulations. Instead, it replaced stiff 3- to 15-year sentences for illegal fishing in the Criminal Code with a slap on-the-wrist fine. The law’s Article 153, passed in March, 2005, tacitly nullified the previous Article 258 of the Criminal Code. Ironically, that new article was proposed by the current Touism Minister Carlos Ricardo Benevides when he was a congressional deputy. Benevides said that no one warned him of the disastrous gap the new article made.

At least, it revealed finally why Puntarenas judge Marvin Cerdas declined the prosecution plea to jail the captain of the Tiuna and her 21 crewmen. When Cerdas’s sentence was finally published, it contained the pained paragraph: “As a citizen, I can tell you that I worry a great deal about the condition that can occur at Cocos Island and what it means for Costa Rica and humanity…” (The island has been proposed for a patrimony of humanity status due to its isolation and condition as a wildlife refuge.)

“Nontheless,” continued Cerdas, “in this case, above the arguments of a common, ordinary citizen, my position is as judge and I must resolve this in accord with penal procedural legality.” The judge proceeded to cite a precedent in a similar case last December when a three-judge tribunal ruled that the new article and not the Penal Code applied. It was for this reason, said Cerdas, that he did not hold the crew in custody even though they were clearly flight risks. He could not deprive men of their liberty, he concluded, if the law did not allow it.