By Wendy Anders

The reintroduction of a bill that would allow ocean trawling has environmental groups in Costa Rica up in arms at the government’s support for such practices.

“Trawling is the most destructive fishing technique, and there are no studies anywhere in the world that demonstrate its sustainability,” said a coaltion of 15 environmental groups, who noted that the draft of law 19,838, now reintroduced for debate, was declared unconstitutional in 2013 before reaching the legislative floor.

Last October, the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Incopesca) presented a document to push forward the legislation to the Legislative Assembly’s Environment Committee seeking to demonstrate that the impact of trawling can be avoided by using certain technologies and restricting the areas in which the practice is used.

This document, said the leaders, does not include valid scientific evidence that demonstrate that the suggested techniques will reduce the impacts of trawling, nor does it include any studies conducted in the country with such evidence. Studies from outside Costa Rica were mentioned, but environmentalists say these, “can not be applied to Costa Rica’s situation, as they are based on other species, are from temperate or arctic climates and in ecosystems very different from ours, and apply to different governance, control and surveillance systems.”

The 2013 constitutional court ruling on trawling said the practice has impacts that go far beyond the capture of other species. It also destroys the seabed, habitat for thousands of other species, and represents unfair competition with small-scale fishers, said the court. Trawling was also determined by the court to undermine democratic sustainable development by harming environmental sustainability and thus interfering with equitable access to resources and the wealth generated from them, said the environmental groups.

The 15 environmental organizations who are questioning the government’s support of trawling are AIDA, Conservation International, Costa Rica Association for Forever, KETO Foundation, Friends of Coco Island Foundation, Corcovado Foundation, MarViva Foundation, Tiburón Mission, CREMA, Fins Attached, Sea Shepherd, The Leatherback Trust, UESPRA, WIDECAST, and ARCAE, said MarViva, the coalition leader.

Incopesca has suggested that the thousands of tons of dead organisms generated annually by trawling could be used for human or animal consumption. “This predatory vision would only encourage more capture and destruction of the country’s habitats and marine diversity,” said the environmentalists.

The organizations are calling for President Solís to immediately withdraw the bill from the legislative calendar through an executive order. They also are calling for a complete phase-out of existing trawling ships.

The technique adversely affects more than 13 thousand families in the artisanal fishing sector, concluded the coalition, many of whom have expressed concerned over recent sitings of dead turtles and other marine life along Guanacaste’s Pacific coast which they feel is a direct result of trawling, or drag nets.