The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the boats, everything from the “Bob Barker” to the “Sea Shepherd” itself, and the fugitive from justice, Captain Paul Watson have all created an international stir of which Costa Rica is right is the middle and does not seem to care much any longer.
In truth, the arch enemy of Watson, et al is Japan. However, it is Costa Rica, the land of ecology, carbon foot prints, and environment protection which has issued the warrant of arrest for Watson who is on the run from INTERPOL along with hundreds of true gangsters and narco-trafficantes.
While it has been months, almost a year, the warrant is still hanging around out there and Watson is some place in hiding or perhaps he is not hiding out and just being ignored?
Let’s see, Costa Rica the Born Again Mecca of Environmental Protection (BAMEP) has an arrest warrant for Watson who is a no-nonsense high seas activist that has not killed nor injured any human.
Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservatory’s mission is to stop illegal whaling, illegal herding of dolphin, massive seal killing and protect anything else performed illegally on the seas.
“I’m not a fugitive,” he declares boldly, although he recently skipped bail in Germany to avoid facing extradition applications made by both Costa Rica and Japan. “If the oceans die, we die. We cannot live on this planet with a dead ocean.”
Does a Costa Rica arrest warrant make sense?
For once, why does Costa Rica not stand up for its well marketed, well sold credo rather than sell out its collective soul to another country who shark fins, whale kills, nets dolphins but in turn will pay some of our outstanding bills, of which there are many?
Watson’s big crime has been using CLE, physical force, rely on globally funded forces to stop what he says are illegal whaling practices resulting in thousands, and I mean thousands of these mammals being shot by 50 caliber guns, hauled aboard and cut up.
The second level and where Costa Rica comes in is the “shark fining business” and transport of these dead and mutilated species.
Tico fisherman and Asian professionals snag sharks dolphin or anything else that swims in the seas and brings them on board only to cut the fins, then, while still while alive toss them back into the ocean to be attacked and eaten alive.
All for money!
Shark fins demand as much as cocaine and for years Costa Rica winked its eye or closed them both to the practice since many those in charge to protect against fining along with government officials were involved in the well guarded practice.
Only in 2012 has Costa Rica clarified its “fining” law; with one exception. A very serious exception.
This bastion of ecology allows the fins to be transported by whatever means from other countries to be exported to buyers vis á vis the land of Pura Vida
In short, the sharks can’t actually be finned in CR waters and dropped off at any of the previously well guarded and secret docks located in Puntarenas. However, fins are cut to the core and then sent to Nicaragua and subsequently brought back by truck into Costa Rica, (Which is legal) packed and shipped out through the ports of Limon and on to the Asian countries that pay handsomely for this quasi aphrodisiac.
Also, the U.S. and even some Asian restaurants in San Jose offer Shark Fin Soup, but not on the menu. It’s under the table, so to speak. You need to ask for it and like buying drugs, you also need to look sincere.
Apparently, with the urging of Japan and Taiwan, soon to be included China, Costa Rica has found a profitable loophole in its “No Fining Law” as well as a ready and willing market of international customers.
Some years ago, about ten, anybody’s guess exactly when, the Sea Shepherd with Watson at the helm intercepted a shark killing boat off the coast of Guatemala and guess what? The owners were Tico.
Bottom line the government of Costa Rica has made a big deal out of this, however only when Japan told CR it would be a good idea to make it a “Bigger” deal to stop Watson and Sea Shepherd. Then Costa Rica jumped on the boat (So to speak).
We, Costa Rica, do not get much out of Japan. We have been and still are China focused, right?
Resulting from massive public opinion, the quest to capture and put in prison the Sea Shepherd leader, Captain Paul Watson has been down played. Especially in light of our recent declaration to save the whales, the turtles, the monkeys and any other living creature whose life could be exchanged for cash. (Except tourists)
“My problem is not that I don’t believe I can get a fair trial in Costa Rica. My problem is that I’ve gotten threats from the shark finners in Costa Rica throughout the last 15 years,” Paul Watson (Tico Times)
