SIGN UP FOR OUR By Wendy Anders
Park guards measure one of the dead sharks to learn more about the animals. Photo by Geiner Golfín, park ranger.
Cocos Island’s protected biodiverse waters were the scene of a marine tragedy Tuesday.
Rangers who patrol the island and, most importantly, the 12 nautical miles surrounding Cocos, were distraught to find 14 sharks caught on an illegally placed 5 mile longline laced with deadly hooks.
Only six were able to be rescued alive, the other eight were dead, said Geiner Golfín, Cocos Island park coordinator in a statement to CRHoy.com, a daily Costa Rican digital news source. Among the dead sharks were hammerhead and silky sharks.
The island is also known as “Shark Island” for its abundance of the animals, whose demand in Asian markets drives a lucrative black market in shark fins despite international treaties and national laws prohibiting fishing the endangered animals.
Non-profit marine conservation groups put a call out on Facebook with graphic photos of the rescue operation asking, “How long will the government tolerate illegal fishing?”
Pretoma, one of the groups denouncing the shark deaths, is a Costa Rican non-profit founded in 1997. They work on marine conservation and research to protect ocean resources and promote sustainable fisheries policies in Costa Rica and Central America, according to their Facebook page
“Costa Rica has an image as a conservationist country. Indeed there are many positive laws and regulations on paper in Costa Rica. However, marine conservation is very far behind land conservation here, and furthermore, many of the positive laws and regulations that do exist go unenforced,” says Pretoma director, Biologist Randall Arauz.
Golfín said the park rangers came across the illegally placed line, which was set to catch tuna, when they were on a whale monitoring tour to the north of the island.
The rangers took advantage of the tragic occurrence to increase their awareness of the animals and how they are faring in the area by taking measurements of the sharks.
Although a boat was intercepted near the site of the longline, rangers had no basis or evidence to make any arrests as the captain claimed to have no knowledge of the illegal line, said Golfín to CRHoy.com.
