The non-governmental organization Conservación Internacional (International Conservation) and the National Coast Guard Service in Costa Rica carried out a joint study from April 2016 through September 2017 in which they monitored foreign vessels that traveled through the exclusive economic zone of the Costa Rican Pacific.

The objective of this operation is to detect any illegal activities that could be taking place and take action against crimes that in the past have gone unpunished due to lack of monitoring tools and evidence, although its well known that they take place in this area; among them illegal fishing of tuna in restricted areas and drug trafficking.

The study monitored over 5000 international vessels (which have public transmission frequencies), in an area of 200 nautical miles from the coast to the ocean; in this area which is 11 times bigger than the Costa Rican territory, the country can explode live natural resources (for fishing) and also non-living as long as it is done responsibly.

Special attention was given to vessels dedicated to tuna fishing since they capture large quantities of fish in big nets. This activity has been a priority for the country in the last few years.

The monitoring technology used corresponds to Catapult/OceanMind, a UK based organization which allows to detect “irregular” activities, for instance, when the vessels turn off their transmission signals as they enter restricted areas, changes in position, speed, and time of navigation of each of the vessels are all details that raise alerts and allow the authorities to intervene.

Vessels have a right to navigate in open sea freely, but they are required to keep uninterrupted transit at a constant speed.

“Satellite technology and artificial intelligence are really allowing for the monitoring of the oceans, but knowledge and experience is required for the information to be interpreted and properly analyzed. This is a very useful tool for fishing analysts since it provides real time monitoring, detailed material, and the intelligence necessary to support the local and international control and surveillance” stated Bradley Soule, chief analyst of Catapult/OceanMind in a press release.

This first monitoring, which was done as a trial, and without alerting the vessels, showed results of over 100 vessels that could have committed illicit acts.

“This helped us do a diagnosis of how the fishing situation in this exclusive economic area, to see the movement during different months of the year, knowing in which area the exploitation occurs as well as knowing which fleets do it legally and which ones illegally”, stated Martin Arias from the National Coast Guard Service who also emphasized over the importance of having a navigation law.

The Coast Guard Service and Fuerza Publica presented in July of 2012 the project “Law of Aquatic Navigation” to the Legislative Assembly, however, since, it has had three modification texts, (2015,2016 and 2017) and it’s still in process of getting approved.

Currently there are some 500 coast guard officers that have to handle maritime issues, support drug trafficking cases, offer assistance to park rangers, port security and navigation, among other activities,