Illegal Fishing

The ocean conservation group Turtle Island Restoration Network has teamed up with the imagery crowdsourcing platform Tomnod.com to launch a campaign that allows conservation-minded Internauts to identify illegal fishing boats in satellite imagery of Cocos Island National Park.

The suspects likely will face criminal charges for threatening officers, and they could lose subsidies from the Mixed Institute for Social Aid.

Conservationists hope unmanned aerial vehicles can help fight illegal fishing in Costa Rica's Cocos Island National Park. Similar drones have been used in South Africa to fight rhino poaching in national parks there.

Campaign backers hope a speedboat will help park rangers better protect the island against illegal fishing. Donations can be made through text message, at banks and supermarkets, and at special collection events.

Of wild-caught seafood that ends up in U.S. fish counters, as much as 32 percent of it is imported illegally, often by boats operating lights-out at night, hauling in tons of animals that will never be counted. The Obama administration's plan includes an ambitious system that aims to track every wild fish and crustacean from where it is caught to where it is shipped in the U.S.

On Sunday, coast guard officers detained a fishing boat in Quepos, Puntarenas, on the Pacific coast, and found 21 shark fins on board weighing four kilograms, which likely came from four sharks, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

In its toughest move yet to eradicate illegal fishing, the European Union on Monday blacklisted Belize, effectively banning the country's products from the world's most valuable seafood market.

A Mexican fishing boat captain busted in 2008 with 12 tons of tuna well within the protected boundary waters of Costa Rica's Isla del Coco National Park fled the country before his trial and has never faced justice.