American Expatriate Costa Rica

Organizations insist on environmental damage caused by shrimp trawlers

In the past ten months, the authorities have caught three shrimp trawlers in marine protected areas.

MarViva Foundation reiterated its complaint, due to the serious environmental damage that these vessels cause.

The organization explained that in this period, authorities confiscated more than half a ton of various species, resulting from illegal fishing. MarViva said that until now, the companies responsible for fishing have not been sanctioned.

Trawling is a technique in which a boat moves by the seabed large nets to catch shrimp. It is one of the less selective techniques and it has a huge impact on the ecosystem.

Shrimp trawling damages the marine environment, and even more so when it is done in marine protected areas. The current government continues to defend this activity and the fishing authorities do little or nothing to ensure that illegal trawling is not carried out in marine protected areas or punish those who do,”

said Jiménez.

The Executive has insisted on maintaining the activity. In the current extraordinary sessions in the Legislative Assembly, it convened a bill to reinstate the technique, without even having verified that it can be carried out sustainably.

crhoy.com