The Tuna Farm Lives, but How?

IMPORTANT MEETING NOTICE

In Pavones,
Thursday, March 5th,
4 p.m. at Dona Dora's Restaurant.

In Golfito, Tuesday, March 10th, 8:30 a.m. at Casa Roland.

Purpose: To discuss the environmental and community impacts of the proposed Tuna Farm in the waters off Punta Banco, the legal issues, and community grass-roots organization activities.

Background:

The company Granjas Atuneras Golfito S.A. ("Tuna Cages" in English) has proposed to install 10 tuna cages near Punta Banco, at the mouth of the Golfo Dulce.

• Will the large amounts of metabolic waste produced by the tuna and dispersed by the currents be swept into the Golfo Dulce?

• What will be the effects on sea turtles that nest along the beach?

• How will feeding mackerel to thousands of tons of tuna in cages that float off the coast of Punta Banco impact the marine ecosystem of one of the world's rare tropical fjords, the Golfo Dulce?

To clarify these uncertainties, Costa Rica's Constitutional Court requested technical studies. Sounds simple.

But no.

On February 16th, the Costa Rican environmental ministry called SETENA chose to ignore the Court’s doubts and recognize the project's "viability" without the technical and environmental studies requested by the Court.

(This would be akin to the EPA ignoring a Supreme Court ruling.)

Now, the case goes to MINAE – another environmental ministry, but with more power. Pretoma hopes that MINAE holds the "Tuna Cages" developer accountable to address the environmental concerns raised by the Constitutional Court.

Pretoma and others are trying to hold up the project until the environmental studies are completed. Surely that is not asking for much. Others are against the project in its entirety.

One sure fire way to stop the project would be to have a popular vote, a referendum, whereby the local communities can express their desire to Say No to the Tuna Cages. Such a referendum must be privately financed. More information is here.