Trawling continues to be a topic of discussion for the Government of Costa Rica, this week, congressmen approved in first debate a bill that would bring back shrimp trawling, in total the bill, presented by deputies Melvin Nuñez from the National Restoration party, known as the Law for for Sustainable Exploitation of Shrimp Fishing, received 26 votes in favor and 18 against.

This bill proposes giving licenses for trawling to semi-industrial vessels of 21 meters (approx. 69 foot) in length by 6 meters (19.68 foot) wide. In fact two types of licenses would be granted for fishermen in Puntarenas depending on the size of their vessels, while in the Caribbean there would be a license exclusively for artisanal vessels

Back in 2013 the Constitutional Chamber had forbidden the renovation or emission of new trawling permits due to the environmental damages this practice causes, and they declared that the only way they could reconsider allowing this practice would be if enough changes were met to make it a sustainable practice, which “would need to be demonstrated through technical studies supported by the scientific community”; conditions that so far have not been met by the fishermen sector.

Currently there are no valid licenses for trawling.

Gustavo Meneses, president of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Institute (Incopesca) has claimed there are 3,700 people that depend economically of shrimp trawling since there are 1,100 fishermen dedicated to this practice; however, tourism operators and artisan fisherman have also clearly stated their opposition to trawling.

The new bill proposes the use of a type of net called AA Costa Rica, which allows the capture of 75% shrimp and 25% of other species per ton trawled, the opposite of the traditional technique. Incopesca, has also argued they have implemented several changes to guarantee conditions for the protection of marine resources, among these the use of bycatch reduction devices, the use of satellite technology to confirm the location of the shrimpers, environmental zoning to help reduce impacts, protect sharks and turtles, and avoid conflicts between artisan fishing and industrial fishing, among others.

The bill will now need to be sent to the Constitutional Chamber for consultation.

Environmentalists have stated their strong opposition to this bill.

In October 2016, the School of Economics of the National University (UNA) presented a socioeconomic study of the semi-industrial shrimp trawling sector which showed that the practice only generates 590 direct jobs, of which 80 percent are of poor quality, and below minimum wage. Shrimp peelers earn on average 37 times less than license owners.