FECOP Celebrates World Fisheries Day in Costa Rica

Today is World Fisheries Day – a short message by Dr. Moises Mug

World Fisheries Day is a celebration rooted in the desire of fisher folks and communities to highlight a profession and a way of life for millions of people around the world. Now this day is being celebrated globally and FAO is holding a symposium in Rome on Human Rights in Fisheries and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUU). World Fisheries Day is also a day to remind us about the critical status of our fishery resources, many showing the signs and impacts of over- exploitation while fishing efforts and the number of fishers is continuously increasing. Costa Rica is home of rich fishery resources and important ocean and coastal ecosystems and habitats that we need to protect to preserve the fisher’s way of life.

Sport fishing presents a real concrete option for sustainable fisheries in Costa Rica, and today we want to congratulate all efforts looking to recover and rebuild our fishery resources, including a bill of law presented to Congress to amend our fisheries law to eliminate the perverse incentive of giving free tuna licenses to industrial tuna purse-seine vessels. We have to stop this nonsense.

Cheers,
Moises