Costa Rica and Colombia move forward on plan to protect marine resources

Costa Rican and Colombian diplomats met in Bogotá this week to develop a joint strategy to protect marine resources and combat the practice of shark finning, officials announced Tuesday.

“Our two countries are on track to implement a series of pragmatic legal standards and benchmarks aimed at controlling the problems taking place in our seas,” the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry’s legal director, Carlos Vargas, said.

The meeting in Colombia was the third in a series of talks about how to combat ongoing shark finning in the region, a practice that conservationists say is decimating shark populations. Previous meetings on the issue were held in San José on Jan. 19 and in Bogotá on Feb. 17.

According to the ministry, the two countries are developing five legal and technical protocols designed to prevent and punish illegal fishing and shark finning. These protocols provide for measures of prevention, monitoring, reporting and cooperation, Vargas said.