| Costa Rica halts tuna farm in Golfo Dulce |
| Wednesday, 07 December 2011 18:10 |
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Save The Waves has announced that the Government of Costa Rica has halted plans to construct a tuna farm at the mouth of the Golfo Dulce. The proposed project consisted of the construction of 80 tuna farms which would have caused significant pollution of the nearshore waters close to Pavones and Punta Banco on the southern edge of the Golfo Dulce. This is a victory for all the groups working on the issue especially Pretoma who led a successful campaign against the project together with attorneys, the surfing community, local organizers, and many more. Save The Waves worked to bring this issue to the light through the media and to galvanize the international surfing community to encouage the government to stop the project. "So many people worked to stop the tuna farms: Golfo Dulce residents, the Pavones No Tuna Farms Association (ANAGA), the international surfing community, national and international NGOs, attorneys, and many more," said Andy Bystom, a Pretoma consultant. "On behalf of everyone involved, we’d like to applaud Setena's decision to stop this project." Approval of the project would have meant the installment of up to 80 circular tuna cages located one kilometre off the coast of some of Costa Rica’s most important sea turtle nesting beaches. Tuna aquaculture would have also been a major contributor to biological waste that could have potentially degraded water quality along economically important surfing and ecotourism areas, as well as negatively impacted local fish stocks. |
