TODAY NICARAGUA NEWS – Nicaragua granted permits to ships from Honduras and Colombia to fish in the area recovered in 2012, after a decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the newspaper El Nuevo Diario reported today. According to statements by Nicaraguan Fishing and Agriculture Institute Director Danilo Rosales to the newspaper, 31 permits to fish in those waters during the 2014-2015 period were granted.
Most of the permits were to Honduran fishermen and there are 13 that allow fishing lobster, the newspaper said.
Rosales recalled that before the ICJ’s decision, which restored 90,000 kilometrs of the Caribbean sea to Nicaragua, Colombia had granted 23 permits to fish in Nicaraguan waters and 95 percent of them were granted specifically to Honduran ships.
Those ships are now authorized by the Nicaraguan Government. They requested the permit to fish in our waters, with the country’s full sovereignty, he said.
The ICJ defined the maritime limits between both nations on November 19, 2012, when it acknowledged Colombia’s sovereignty over seven cays of the archipelago of San Andres, as well as a 12-nautical-mile range around the cays Serrana and Quitasueño.
Besides, the decision recognized both sides’ rights and restored to Nicaragua a maritime strip in that area, after 11 years of dispute at the ICJ.
