The governments of Costa Rica and Colombia met earlier this week in Bogota to ratify their commitment to protect marine resources, particularly with regard to their collaboration in the battle against shark finning, according to an official communication by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Central American nation of Honduras also ratified her commitment to shark protection by celebrating the first anniversary of the “Shark Sanctuary” declaration that prohibits catching sharks in territorial waters.

Carlos Vargas, director of judicial affairs for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented Costa Rica at the meeting in Bogota. This is the third official meeting on the matter, and the focus this time was on the five protocols that Costa Rica and Colombia intend to create and implement to prevent shark poaching and the removal of their fins by irresponsible fishing crews. These five protocols cover matters of prevention, vigilance, legal complaints, maritime cooperation, and administrative regulation of the fishing industry.

Also earlier this week, the President of Honduras Porfirio Lobo Sosa held a ceremony in a naval installation in which 114 shark fins confiscated by security forces from poachers were burned. The ceremony marked one year since Honduras took drastic steps to protect her 300 shark species by banning their catch. President Lobo remarked:

“It is important to speak up in order to protect sharks. I hope that many other nations become conscious and prohibit shark fishing. […] I am committed to keep on fighting to protect the species; what we have today is borrowed and we need to leave it to our future generations.”

Honduras is one of the few countries in the world to have enacted a national shark sanctuary. In early May, the Pew Environment Group lauded the joint initiative by Costa Rica and Honduras to protect the different hammerhead shark species, which according to that policy-research organization are estimated to be victims of poaching in 4 percent of the overall illegal shark finning trade.

Prosecutors and Fishermen in Costa Rica  Look Out for Devious Shark Fin Poachers

In Puntarenas, the Pacific Union of Fishermen and local prosecutors are seeing new attempts by poachers to circumvent Article 139 of the Ley de Pesca (Fishing Law, PDF) in Costa Rica, which specifically prohibits shark finning.

The Costa Rica Star has previously reported on the case of the fishing vessel Hung Chi Fu, registered in Belize. In 2011, the FV Hung Chi Fu was busy offloading a catch of Hexanchus griesus, blunt-nosed grey sharks (also called cow sharks), which are abundant in the Pacific coast off Costa Rica. The H. griesus catch of the was within the legal limit, but it was used to conceal a sizable catch of blue sharks with their fins hacked off. After a ship arrest and subsequent trial, the Taiwanese captain was ordered to pay about $124,000 in fines.

A more intricate shark finning scheme was uncovered by fishermen in the Pacific coast of Costa Rica also in 2011. The case involves a woman named Kathy Tseng Chang, who is the business agent for three fishing vessels registered in Belize. Fishermen in Puntarenas noticed something suspicious on one of those boats, the Wang Jia Men 89. The selachian catch of that vessel was highly unusual: it consisted of dorsal fins attached by a wire to portions of shark remains.

Forensic biologists and crime investigators set out to investigate the strange shark fin poaching method of the FV Wang Jia Men 89; they determined that the crew was attempting to circumvent Article 139 of the Fishing Law, which states that all sharks caught and brought to shore must have their fins attached to a certain percentage of the body. Some gutting of the shark is allowed to take place at sea, but the traditional poaching practice of hauling a shark onto the deck of the boat, hacking off its fins and throwing it back to the ocean is considered grounds for criminal prosecution.

The above-described traditional shark finning method is what Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson claims he observed back in 2002 on the deck of the FV Varadero, a vessel flying the flag of Costa Rica. Mr. Watson is currently in Germany awaiting the outcome of an extradition proceeding that could bring him to Costa Rica to answer criminal charges based on a complaint by the crew of the FV Varadero, who claim that Mr. Watson endangered their vessel.

Prosecutors in Costa Rica believe that the fishing crew of the Wang Jia Men 89 cut off numerous shark fins out at sea and kept a few sharks on board to put together a mess of body parts and fins attached by wire. The idea was to make more room on the boat for catch, and to claim that the fins were attached to a significant part of the shark as provided by the law; alas, prosecutors filed charges against Kathy Tseng Chang, who back in February was also under investigation for alleged human trafficking.

Environmentalists and legislators have called for amendments to the Fishing Law for the purpose of eliminating ambiguity; in essence, to state that caught sharks must be intact when they reach the shore.

The curious case of the shark fins attached by wire was reported in detail by journalist Daniela Araya of the digital news daily Costa Rica Hoy.