Costa Rica remains one of four countries in the world to forbid shrimp trawling following President Carlos Alvarado’s Oct. 30 veto of legislation that would have allowed the practice to start up again in national waters. The country’s Legislative Assembly had earlier approved a resumption of shrimp trawling, which the Costa Rican Constitutional Court banned in 2013 with the proviso that the practice could be allowed again if the government showed it could occur in an environmentally responsible way. Costa Rica’s Fisheries Institute (Incopesca) presented lawmakers a study last year suggesting that modifications to shrimp-trawling nets could significantly reduce bycatch—the incidental capture of untargeted species such as turtles, sharks and other marine life. Though the agency did not affirm that shrimp fishing can be carried out in an environmentally sustainable way, further legislative deliberations culminated on Oct. 22 of this year in a 28-18 Legislative Assembly vote to... [Log in to read more]