New Costa Rica Fishing Legislation a Boon for Conservation and Tourism Alike

(Newswire.net — May 19, 2014) Bahia Herradura, Puntarenas — As she exited her office in early May, Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla decreed that commercial tuna fishing ships are no longer welcome to fish within 60 miles of the Pacific coast line.

 

For decades massive fishing nets have plowed the Pacific coastal waters of Costa Rica for tuna, killing everything within their wake as all marine life, including dolphins and turtles, were accidently ensnared as bycatch.

 

Not only were those destructive nets taking out dolphins and turtles, but also they were significantly lowering the tuna population, thus creating a dangerous imbalance in the ecosystem, a situation that could present serious, far reaching repercussions.

 

With the passing of this new legislation, tuna ships will be able to do their fishing 60 to 200 miles offshore and no closer.

 

This new decree was set forth in hopes that it will help to rebuild the ocean’s wildlife population in what are some of the planet’s most bio-diverse waters.

 

Chinchilla’s new ocean management plan is a welcome change for many, not just environmentalists. Interested parties are optimistic that the tuna and dolphin pod populations will see rapid recovery, along with other sea life that has been driven from the area because of overfishing.

 

Beyond restoration of balance to the ocean’s ecosystem, the promise of unmatched big game fishing in conjunction with the opportunity to once again witness massive pods of dolphins in their natural habitat will make the area even more attractive for International tourists than it already is.

 

“This is great news” said, Mike Hardy, owner of HRG Vacations, a subsidiary of Hardy Real Estate Group, a real estate and property managment company located just outside of Los Sueños Resort and Marina. “We have some of the most prolific sport fishing in the world, and one could also argue that Costa Rica is one of the most ecologically diverse places on the planet. It would be a shame to have all that destroyed by the continuation of unregulated commercial fishing”.

 

After having lived and worked in the area for nearly fifteen years, Hardy has a good sense of what is happening on the marine front.  “The fishing has always been amazing, but this year we saw record breaking releases. I’ll be happy to see that continue unfettered”.