Tico wins Goldman Environmental Prize

Tico wins Goldman Environmental Prize.

By Matt Levin
Tico Times Staff | mlevin@ticotimes.net

Randall Arauz earned a $150,000 award for his fight against the killing of sharks off the shores of Costa Rica. The biologist and founder of PRETOMA (Association for the Restoration of Sea Turtles) was selected as one of the six winners for the Goldman Environmental Prize.

Arauz worked to protect sea turtles in Costa Rica when the issue of shark finning was brought to his attention in 2003. A friend aboard a Taiwanese fishing boat secretly taped the killing of tens of thousands of sharks in the waters around Costa Rica. The fishermen would remove the fins of the shark and toss the live shark back into the water. By throwing the sharks back into the water, the ships were able to fit more shark fins on board.

“Shark finning is not only cruel,” said Arauz, in a video presented at the awards. “It is irresponsible and unsustainable fishing at its highest degree. In spite of this, it has been close to impossible to attain any binding management and conservation measures to curtail this practice.”

Shark fin soup is a popular and expensive specialty in East Asia.

Over the years, Arauz has waged a battle with the local government asking it to enforce Costa Rican laws designed to protect the sharks. Laws mandate that all sharks must be landed with their fins still attached. International fishing boats often circumvent that law, Arauz said, and the Costa Rican government does little to pursue or punish them. Arauz also brought international attention to the cause by soliciting the United Nations to call on other nation's to follow similar shark fishing policies.

The annual award recognizes environmental activists on each of the six inhabited continents. Arauz is the first Costa Rican to win the award, which was presented Monday in San Francisco, California. PRETOMA plans to use part of the prize money to buy all terrain vehicles which will allow the organization to have better access to remote beaches that are home to endangered sea turtles.