A year after the United States lifted a five-month embargo on shrimp imports from Costa Rica because U.S. officials determined commercial shrimp harvesters in the country were taking steps to help endangered sea turtles, national fishermen’s associations and environmental organizations are renewing efforts to halt fishing practices that threaten to wipe out leatherback turtles within 10-15 years.
A joint project between the Marine Turtle Restoration Program (PRETOMA), the Puntarenas Chamber of Fishermen, the Independent Union of Shrimp Fishermen (UNIPESCA) and the state-run Costa Rican Fishery Institute (INCOPESCA) aims to train Costa Rican fishermen in the proper use of devices meant to keep turtles out of their nets.
The so-called turtle-excluder devices (TEDs), developed by U.S. fisherman and PRETOMA collaborator Sinkey Boone in 1969, consist of bars installed on shrimping nets to prevent turtles from being captured along with shrimp and drowning after remaining underwater five or six hours, an amount that exceeds their lung capacity.
THE educational initiative, which will also evaluate different TED designs to find out which are best suited for Costa Rican waters and fishing activity, will focus on two main areas, shrimping out of the central Pacific port-town of Puntarenas, and long-lining out of Playas del Coco, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, according to PRETOMA president Randall Aráuz.
Even though Costa Rica passed a law in late 2002 requiring TED use, Aráuz said turtle-excluder devices have a bad reputation among fishermen here, who claim they do not capture as much shrimp when they use them.
PRETOMA, a nonprofit organization, seeks to change that perception through the new training program, Aráuz explained. Hugo Solano, spokesman for the Costa Rican Fishery Institute (INCOPESCA), said the institute and Costa Rican Coast Guard jointly perform approximately 120 annual, unannounced inspections of the estimated 50 Costa Rican shrimping boats to check for TED use.
Since 2002, there have been four cases of violation of the law to protect marine turtles, said INCOPESCA Technical Director Marvin Mora. THE education project seeks to encourage fishermen to use TEDs by showing them the benefits of the devices. “The project relies greatly on the collaboration of Costa Rican fishermen,” PRETOMA representative Noah Anderson said.
The organization plans to make six excursions aboard shrimping boats to observe their fishing practices and provide hands-on, practical training to fishermen from now until May or June.
“Last September, Sinkey Boone came here and imparted a three-week training in Puntarenas, in which he explained the advantages of the correct use of TEDs. Not only do they keep turtles from entering the net, they also keep garbage and wood out, which improves the quality of the shrimp,” Anderson said.
THE devices “are used (in Latin America) because they are imposed by the United States, not for responsible fishing,” Aráuz said, adding that the United States imposed trade sanctions on Panama last December, while Venezuela has been embargoed two to three times already.
The United States established a law in 1996 that allows it to ban shrimp exports from any country that does not use the turtle-excluder devices. “The U.S. government certifies each country through an annual, announced visit, so it’s easy for fishermen to set up a scene that looks good,” Aráuz said.
ALL seven species of sea turtles, whose ancestors date as far back as the dinosaurs, are facing the threat of extinction. The largest of them all, the leatherback, is the most endangered, according to Aráuz.
PRETOMA strives to help all these species survive. Among its many programs, the organization runs a turtle hatchery program in Playa Caletas to help olive ridley and leatherback turtle populations on the Pacific coast (TT, Jan. 28).
Pacific leatherback populations, which have four major nesting locations in the Pacific basin including Costa Rica, have dropped dramatically in the past 25 years. While an estimated 91,000 nests existed in 1980, by 2002 only 5,000 remained, according to “Last Journey for the Leatherback,” a 2004 film by U.S.-based Earthview Productions distributed in Costa Rica by PRETOMA.
THE reason for their decline? Human indifference, according to environmentalists. Some, like the hawksbill turtle, are victims of international demand for its shell, the source of most tortoiseshell jewelry. Others fall prey to subsistence hunters and poachers who sell their meat.
Most sea turtles, however, die during their incidental capture in fishing or shrimping nets and lines, Aráuz said. In a practice known as pelagic long-lining, commercial Costa Rican fishermen use fishing lines of up to 800 hooks that may extend 15-20 miles during their two-week fishing expeditions, he explained.
Often, leatherbacks become tangled or caught on these lines and die when fishermen rip the hooks out of their mouths. Making matters worse, international fleets from Asia, Spain and Norway may circle Pacific waters from four to five months, dragging 5,000-hook lines that extend more than 100 miles in international waters, posing an even greater threat to turtles and other marine species.
SCIENTISTS estimate that every year, pelagic long-lining in the Pacific Ocean kills 40,000 marine turtles, along with 3.7 million sharks, 14,000 black-footed albatross, 2,000 dolphins and 1,500 whales, according to the Earthview Productions documentary.
“The problem is, there is no law for international waters,” Aráuz said. “Who controls them? No one!”
Drift-netting, a procedure used to capture tuna, salmon and squid, was considered the most environmentally destructive fishing technique, because it killed everything it caught along the way. The United Nations banned it in 1991.
A petition signed in June 2004 by 4,000-5,000 scientists asks the United Nations to declare a moratorium on pelagic long-lining in international waters on the Pacific, according to the PRETOMA president.
“Only the United Nations can stop this,” Aráuz said.
The United Nations, however, has yet to respond to the initiative for a long-lining moratorium, part of a movement begun in 2002, he added.
