commercial fishing

Costa Rica receives some $19 for each metric ton of tuna that can later reach a market price of some $2,000.

The Costa Rican Fisheries Federation (FECOP) credits an October 2014 governmental decree restricting industrial tuna fishing in Costa Rican waters with what it says are recovering tuna and dolphin populations.

Pollution, industrial fishing and climate change have killed off half of marine life in the last four decades, according to a WWF report released Wednesday. A quarter of shark and ray species face extinction, largely due to overfishing.

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

Adrian Arguijo Valdez is an artisanal fisherman. His weathered hands are a testament to countless years of direct exposure to sun and wind on the Golfo de Nicoya, off Costa Rica's north-central Pacific coast. Threads dance off the edges of his loose clothing, but there is still great strength in his presence. “I used to be a fisherman but times have changed,” he says.

When the mutineers of the HMS Bounty landed on Pitcairn Island in 1790, they believed they had found the perfect refuge: a fertile Eden...