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Health & Fitness

One Less Hook, One More Shark

One Less Hook, One More Shark by David McGuire

“There is a longline about two miles south of Alcyone pinnacle.  We just called the Rangers.  You may want to dive on it and see if there is anything on it.”  Sean Guinness, the captain of the mother ship Sirenuse informs us over the radio.  As part of a documentary and research team composed of biologists from the non profit PRETOMA, I am diving the remote island known as Isla de Coco.  Located approximately 350 miles off the Costa Rican shore, Cocos Island is a World Heritage site and a marine reserve, protected by Costa Rican law.  Over the centuries, treasure hiding pirates, ocean adventurers and shark lovers have found their way to this remote rock in the Pacific Ocean. An oasis of marine life, Jacques Cousteau proclaimed it the most beautiful island on earth.  Known for its abundance of marine life, including Hammerhead sharks, Manta Rays and thousands of fish, the waters of Cocos are a SCUBA diver’s paradise.  But as we are experiencing this day, modern day pirates are pillaging Cocos of her true hidden treasure.

Our skiff speeds out to a radio beacon marking the end of the line and a string of buoys loaded with baited hooks stretching to the horizon: all within the no fishing zone. 

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As we wait for the park rangers to arrive and help pull the illegal longline, we examine the radio beacon that allows the poacher to find the line and recover their contraband.  The buoy has Chinese markings but no ship identification and we discover the hooks are set deep and on strong leaders suggesting that this is a shark line.

Camera in hand I dive into the blue water and find the first shark; a dead silky shark about five feet long, motionless and ghostlike against the blue. Alone with a dead shark in the blue water I feel a weighty sadness, the opening melody of Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess resonates in my mind, and I feel like drifting down to the depths with this dead hunter.

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The Rangers arrive and we follow alongside as the line spools into the boat, watching each line for signs of a live fish.  Shark after shark comes aboard and is cut away and thrown over the side to drift down to the deep.  Endangered hammerheads hang like dead fruit in the current and only a few silky sharks survive the ordeal. The line stretches for miles and is armed with hundreds of hooks.

The fishermen from the main port of Punta Arenas know that the best fishing is in the reserve and with few boats to patrol, and a weak law requiring the line to be attached to the boat to be illegal, lines are set to drift into the reserve and picked up later out of sight of the rangers.

The rangers take the decommissioned line ashore and add the monofilament and buoys to their pile. With an area extending out 25 miles from the island and one small boat, to patrol, enforcement is extremely difficult.  Even so, piles of hooks, buoys and lines are testament to their vigilance.  They have even constructed a bridge across a stream composed of confiscated floats.

One of the Pretoma biologists with our team acts as an observer on the tuna longliners, collecting data on bycatch such as turtles and sharks, and is also testing new gear like special hooks which can release unwanted animals.  “The tuna fishers are killing sharks for the fins.  I see this all of the time.”  Allan tells me.  “It is illegal, but they land them behind guarded gates at the private docks. But now foreign flagged ships are required to land them at the public docks.”  Just last week a Belize flagged ship was caught landing sharks that had been finned and the captain was arrested.  Hundreds of hidden fins were discovered, numbering far more than the bodies of onboard. The captain of the Hung Chi Fu XII was arrested and later fined but the Chinese company owning the fleet was allowed to sell the cargo. The ship remains active in the fishing fleet.

“Clearly, the international fleet needs the privacy of its private docks to hide its shark finning activities, but now it must respect our laws” Said Pretoma founder Randall Arauz Arauz was recently awarded the Goldman Hero of the Environment award in recognition of Pretoma’s efforts to reduce shark finning in Costa Rica. At 73 million sharks killed each year for fins, it’s a slow start, but it is a start.

 “The government is allowing the foreign fleets to suck the ocean dry. Unless Costa Rica cares enough about its ocean, we are going to run out of sharks and other fish like tuna.  We need to stop shark fishing period.”  Arauz concludes.

Perhaps there is hope. Costa Rica prides itself on its ecological image and tourism is a significant part of the economy. Foreign pressure can help persuade the government to increase enforcement and reduce the sale for shark fins abroad. The SCUBA fleet acts as eyes on the island and actively assists Pretoma tagging turtles and sharks. Increased vigilance at the island and offshore can have an impact on the poachers themselves. 

We take matters into our own hands.

After a week of diving and tagging sharks and turtles, our team turns towards the mainland for the 40 hour boat ride.  Along the way, we encounter another longline with hooks spread across the waters above a submarine ridge I call the Hammerhead highway.  Hundreds of feet below is a mountain ridge used by migratory fish between Cocos, Malpelo off the coast of Columbia and the Galapagos Islands. We follow the longline, clipping the hooks and releasing the largest Manta Ray I have ever seen.  We leave behind us a hookless longline that is now an impotent ghost.  Allan decommissions the confiscated hooks and hammers them into tight circles which he gives each crew as symbols of conservation. These hooks will not fish again.  One less hook fishing means one more shark. With millions of hooks in the ocean, there is work for us to do.  Pura Vida.  

Join the Shark Tribe. For a donation of $100 to Shark Stewards we are offering limited edition of necklaces made of confiscated hooks on a leather lanyard.  Stainless steel bent into a circle, these hooks will not fish again.


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