"Costa Rica’s fuel subsidies are funding widespread poaching and overfishing in supposedly protected waters."
"In April 2022, a blue and white fishing boat sliced through the protected waters surrounding Costa Rica’s Isla San José at high speed. Its 75-horsepower engine churned the turquoise surface of the Guanacaste Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site teeming with manta rays and bottlenose dolphins.
Onboard, three fishermen were attempting to escape the law as a triple-engined Costa Rican Coast Guard speedboat closed in. Minutes later, balaclava-clad patrolmen boarded the panga and opened its coolers: 62 kilograms of red snapper, some still alive, gills gasping, was now evidence of a crime.
The Dorka II was Costa Rican-registered, but its crew members were Nicaraguan. The captain, identified only as Salazar, was arrested and later convicted of illegal fishing, and found to already have a lengthy record for “various violations of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Law,” according to the Costa Rican Ministry of Public Security.
While hailed as a success for marine protection, the arrest exposed an uncomfortable contradiction: In the preceding six years, the Dorka II had received 87,667 liters of subsidized fuel from the Costa Rican government’s fisheries department. Forty transfers of tax-exempt fuel had saved the vessel’s owner more than $62,300, according to government records."
Johnny Sturgeon reports for Inside Climate News December 14, 2025.
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