SIGN UP FOR OUR 
One of the species affected by seine fishing.
The Costa Rican Fishing Federation (Spanish initials: FECOP) has launched an online petition addressed to President Laura Chinchilla asking her to issue a particular Executive Decree before she steps down as Head of State: To prohibit seine-haul fishing of tuna within the first 100 nautical miles of both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. FECOP is asking people in Costa Rica to support the petition by choosing one species to save: Spinner dolphin, marlin, sailfish, or dorado (mahi-mahi).
The petition can be found at PorNuestroAtun.org (For Our Tuna). The formal request is as follows:
Madame President, we ask of you to stop seine-haul fishing of tuna within the first 100 nautical miles.
About 85 percent of commercial tuna fishing operations take place in the same waters where schools of dolphins swim; please do not allow fishing fleets to continue killing spinner dolphins and others off our coastline.
Research shows that these species cannot preserve their population count due to tuna fishing operations close to shore. Only about 30 percent of these once-abundant dolphin populations remain.
Seine-haul tuna fishing close to shore causes mortality, post-capture stress, chronic muscle tissue damage, and uneven feeding patterns among caught species. Observing dolphins in the wild as part of ecotourism activities does not harm them, but tuna fishing around them does.
You can learn more about the petition at FECOP’s Responsible Fishing Facebook Timeline. WIDECAST and six other fishing and nature conservation groups are also supporting this petition.
Although the administration of President Laura Chinchilla has enacted restrictions on commercial longline tuna fishing fleets, FECOP thinks that the government should do more to protect the rich marine biodiversity of Costa Rica. As of March 28th, FECOP reported that more than 1,200 signatures had been collected.
