Randall Arauz And His Fight For Hammerhead Shark Conservation In Costa Rica

(MENAFN- Costa Rica News) It has been 12 years since Randall Arauz, began his fight to protect marine species in Costa Rica, mainly hammerhead sharks.

Randall Arauz, a Costa Rican marine biologist with a PhD in Marine Sciences, has been working on marine conservation issues since the 1990s and is a member of Marine Watch International.

In May 2017, the former president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, created an Executive Decree, which says“that sharks are not wildlife and that then, as they are commercial species, they could continue to be fished”, regardless of what the Wildlife Conservation Law says.

Due to the decree during the mandate of the former president of Costa Rica, in September of that same year (2017) Randall and the organizations that accompanied him in the fight decided to follow a two-armed strategy: one, to take the Proposed Law to the Legislative Assembly, so that there would be no doubt that endangered sharks are wildlife and, in turn, to put the complaint in the Contentious Administrative, due to the -illegality of decisions-,“an Executive Decree can never affect a Law, however, in Costa Rica that was done” he said.

After that year, they began to see progress within the assembly,“it took two years of paperwork for the Popular Initiative office of the Legislative Assembly to send the proposal to the Environmental Commission. Last year in December, when we lost the vote in the plenary, after such a long process, Congressman Ariel Robles told me that they were going to present it again (and I was a little discouraged, thinking about the time we have to wait to see what happens), but he assured me that he was going to present it once and for all”.

Robles presented the Bill last June of this year within the assembly, before this, Arauz noticed that it is moving quite a lot, and, additionally, as good news is that the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) published its criteria, that it is totally in agreement with the proposal, -that it is necessary, and that they support the proposed law-.

In this way, the Tico biologist expressed“First of all, if they believe that this law reform should be done, they don't have to wait, what they have to do is to respect what the order of the Court I says, which already said what MINAE should do: an order to MINAE and INCOPESCA to comply with the Wildlife Conservation Law, not with the Fishing Law. The Conservation Law says that the governing body is MINAE; Article 14 says that -it is forbidden to trade wild animals in any way, hunt them, or sell them-, and Article 75 of the Conservation Law says that -it is forbidden to sell and export these species- and, in addition to that, Article 140 of the Fisheries Law also says that, -It is prohibited to fish species that are protected by international actions, those species that are in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), that is, they have an order from the Court, the law is clear with what they have to do and they do not want to do it”.

Everything they have presented, besides the two-armed strategy, is for the same purpose of protecting the hammerhead shark, that if they don't succeed on one side, they will succeed on the other.

Regarding MINAE's criteria, the Vice Minister, Jorge Mario Rodriguez, who has strong ties with SINAC, signed it, because Minister Franz Tattenbach is out of the country.

Arauz referred to the setback that has existed due to pressure from the fishing sector,“because in 2017, this sector was imposing itself on MINAE, and the Minister of Environment at that time, biologist Edgar Gutiérrez, allowed – illegally, according to the Court – to take away the stewardship over sharks from MINAE. Then, we had a second Minister of Environment, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, who did the same thing, and the current one, we already have three ministers who refuse to enforce the Wildlife Conservation Law. They are not paying attention to the Supreme Court of Justice”.

Randall affirms that there are deputies who are very committed and recalled that, the law proposal entered in the last current with Paola Vega,“it was during her time when it was stopped. Now that Congressman Robles is behind all this, there is more support, maybe we will have to wait one more year, it will be necessary, of course then we would have to go to the plenary to see how the votes are going to be, because there influence the issue of the little games or political agreements that make everything more complicated”.

On the one hand, Arauz and his comrades in struggle need what the Court says to be complied with, but, on the other hand, it is clear that what they propose in the law is that a species may be commercial, but when it is declared in danger of extinction, it automatically becomes protected by the Wildlife Conservation Law and under the MINAE.

The biologist, a member of Marine Watch International, previously spoke with the current Minister of Environment, Franz Tattenbach, when he had just assumed his position. He spoke to him about the proposed law and explained to him what had to be done, what the Court I said in its resolution, and that the problem was already solved – the only thing he had to do was to comply with it.

It is worth noting that, in November 2024, Tattenbach was designated as a“champion of the Oceans” by Rob Stewart at the inspiring“Saving our Seas” gala.

At the end of 2023 was the first hearing, Arauz, together with his colleagues and lawyer Walter Brenes, filed an appeal before the new Contentious Administrative Court, requesting the discussion of the sentence or decree 43.900 of MINAE-INCOPESCA which was signed in January 2023 and which prohibits hammerhead shark fishing, the title of the decree was“Prohibition of Hammerhead Shark Fishing”.

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According to the decree, from that moment on, the capture, retention on board, transshipment, unloading, storage, and commercialization of hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini), (Sphyrna zygaena), (Sphyrna mokarran) products and by-products would not be allowed in Costa Rica.

“But then you look at Articles 2 and 3, which allow bycatch, so how do they allow it?”. In January 2021, the fisheries inspector, José Miguel Corrales, was asked what INCOPESCA does to protect hammerhead sharks, and he said, -we have a hammerhead shark sanctuary in the Golfo Dulce-, then my lawyer Walter Brenes asked,“Is there no fishing in this sanctuary? Corrales answered,“Yes, there are cooperatives and fishing associations there”, and Brenes came back and asked:“How do they fish? -They fish with nets-, and don't they catch hammerhead sharks? -Yes, incidentally,” Corrales clarified.

The judge of the Court, after studying the bycatch issue carefully stated that“it is evident that bycatch has a negative effect on the hammerhead shark population and it must be prohibited”, after that the judge also added,“If bycatch is allowed, all the fishermen will say that the sharks that arrived were dead”.

A 2021 regulation says that all live hammerhead sharks must be released to survive, this is also known as a very delicate species.

Randall Arauz highlighted what is now being promoted to save the hammerhead shark and that is to avoid fishing them,“what is called as remediation measures, prohibiting it does not work after the animal is dead”.

The hammerhead shark, according to scientific literature, the moment you take it out of the water, 80% is already dead and if you release it, it dies, which is called post-capture mortality,“so what is the point of saying that there is a hammerhead shark sanctuary if you allow people to fish there and in an incidental manner, many take advantage of it. My lawyer in the first hearing, presented a request for a precautionary measure which was to immediately suspend all incidental capture and to suspend articles 2 and 3 of decree 43.900, because they are the ones that allow incidental fishing, that was in January 2023”.

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