COCO ISLAND (COSTA RICA)- Costa Rican park rangers caught a shark finning boat working the shark-infested waters off remote Coco Island. They let fourteen other boats go. That leads to doubts about the sincerity of the Costa Rican efforts to actually fighting back shark finning in their waters.
Geiner Golfín, park director, said the radar detected at least 15 boats in north, but they decided to pursue one.
Paid off government
The English newspaper and website The Costa Rican Times claims the other shark finning boats that got away are likely Taiwanese boats that had already paid off the Costa Rican government to allow them to escape.
The Costa Rican Government is receiving huge kick backs for allowing shark finning in their waters and needed to show they were serious about continuing to receive this money or they were pressured by the Asian countries to get him in prison here., according to the newspaper.
Allowed to get caught
The Coco Island Rangers in a joint effort with the National Guard intercepted 1 boat with 47 shark fins. No doubt this was the boat that the Taiwanese allowed to get caught. It is like the drugs lords that ship cocaine to the USA that allow a shipment of 15 kilos to get seized from time to time. Governments look like they are trying to take care of the problem and the drug lords and shark finners have acceptable losses.
The ship, The Perishersis is registered in the name of the company in Puntarenas named Los Pericos Green SA and carried seven crew members.
Thresher and grey reef sharks
During inspection of the ship, officers found the fins in the hold. The director explained that the fins correspond to the thresher shark species ( Alopias pelagicus ) and grey reef shark ( Carcharhinus falciformis ).
According to the Law on Fisheries and Aquaculture, No. 8436, it is an offense if the flaps are completely detached from the body of the shark.