Officers from the National Coast Guard Service of Costa Rica rescued a school of juvenile sharks estimated to have been born only a few days before getting caught in an illegal fishing net.

The rescue took place in the Pacific Ocean, specifically in the Abangares maritime sector of the Gulf of Nicoya, province of Guanacaste. According to an official press release issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the Coast Guard was on routine patrol when one of their boats came upon nets that had been set in a sector where this type of fishing has been prohibited.

The crew of the patrol boat started to hoist the nets for future documentation and destruction when they noticed a lot of splashing near the surface. The officers focused their hoisting efforts on that net since the baby sharks were deeply tangled and could not swim away.

After untangling the young sharks from the net, the Coast Guard officers took notes and photographed the aquatic species for further review by marine biologists. Under ideal circumstances, the sharks would have been tagged for monitoring and research. The juvenile selachians were then released to their habitat.

As reported by The Costa Rica Star in 2013, the Gulf of Nicoya is one of various maritime sectors where certain types of net fishing has been outlawed:

On August 7, 2013, the Constitutional Court ruled that using trawling nets for shrimping is unconstitutional. This measure aims to minimize the impact that this type of fishing is causing along the country’s coast, especially in the Gulf of Nicoya.

According to Randall Arauz, manager of the Sharks and Sea Turtles Restoration Program (PRETOMA), trawl fishing [and other types of fishing that involves casting of certain nets] greatly affects local fishermen in Guanacaste. The problem with many types of nets is that they do not allow the separation of desired species.