Celebrity conservationist Paul Watson filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Costa Rica before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging politically-motivated criminal charges.
Paul Watson is fed up with Costa Rica’s attempts to prosecute him. For 13 years, this tiny Central American country that promotes itself as a model of environmental responsibility has tried to put the bushy-haired marine conservationist in jail over an incident that occurred in 2002 in Guatemalan waters.
This year, for the first time, the international conservation group sent a research vessel to help Costa Rican authorities protect humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), which migrate annually to the shallow waters of Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast to birth and raise their young.
On the black sands of Playa Hermosa, just below Jacó on the Central Pacific Coast, turtle-hatching season has begun again. And from an ideal vantage point on the beach, the Sandpiper Hotel on Hermosa's northern end stands as a symbol for the conservation efforts taken to help get as many baby turtles into the sea as possible.
A gang of more than 10 poachers carrying sticks, machetes and guns allegedly attacked the international volunteers on Pacuare beach, Sea Shepard Central America spokesman Jorge Serendero told The Tico Times on Friday.
Named after the Hollywood celebrity who has supported the marine conservation group for two decades, the R/V Martin Sheen is one of the latest additions to Sea Shepherd's global fleet, and it's now in Costa Rica.
If you’ve spent any time on a ship, Raffaella Tolicetti’s descriptions of working a kitchen during rocky seas should sound familiar – although she has the added challenge of cooking while antagonistic vessels attempt to ram each other in Antarctic waters.
The group is asking for volunteers to help patrol beaches against poachers in southeastern Florida, Honduras and Costa Rica. For the first time, the group will patrol Moín Beach in Costa Rica's Limón province, the beach where Mora was brutally killed in 2013.
The United Nations mission in Costa Rica released a statement Wednesday criticizing the acquittal of seven men accused of the murder of 26-year-old sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora. The U.N. urged the Costa Rican government to rectify the case and convict those responsible for the slaying.
Ocean conservationist and Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson started a social media campaign Monday asking followers to write to Costa Rica's new president, Luis Guillermo Solís, and urge that an extradition request be dropped.
