Thank you to Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly for passing the tuna reform bill

Thank you…

For choosing our oceans, dolphins, national fishermen and future generations over the particular interests of certain groups, limiting purse-seine tuna fishing vessels beyond 80 miles from our shores.

This is a great step that promotes economic reactivation for Costa Rican fishermen and citizens of coastal communities, through better management of the different fishing fleets.

Sailfish is the lifeblood of coastal tourism. The national commercial fishing sector has repeatedly mentioned publicly that if the purse seiners were not taking away all the tuna wealth, they would be able to access this resource more easily and could reduce their impact on sailfish. Currently, more than 17,000 individual sailfish are killed each year on commercial fishing lines and are traded at low value in local markets.

Many Costa Rican fishermen, employees of marinas, hotels, restaurants and workers in the national eco-tourism sector depend on tourist and sport fishing in the country. It is time that all sectors have fair access to the resources they need. We ask commercial fishermen to keep their word and support our request to restrict the sale of sailfish. fecop.org