Officials of the National Service of Coastguards opened fire to scare away four fishing vessels that surrounded the patrol boat MarViva 1 whilst it confiscated illegal fishing lines in protected waters of Cocos Island.It was reported on 13th June that the incident happened the previous week at 17km from Ulloa Point within the islands territories in the pacific ocean.
Three of the illegal vessels that threatened the authorities only had permission to fish less than 40 miles from the coast ( 70 km) , according to the ports. The island is located at 532km southeast of Cabo Blanco in Costa Rica.
There still has not been a written report.
The coastguards had to abandon confiscating the fishing line, and withdraw to a safe distance to avoid a confrontation.
The marine police were patrolling alongside park rangers in a boat belonging to the environmental organization MarViva. This very same day – authorities recorded 10 illegal fishing boats within the parks protected waters.
The MarViva boat found illegal longlines attached to 91 floating radio buoys, and on this baited line they found yellow fin tuna, 5 dead hammerhead sharks, a pink marlin, and white tip sharks , amongst other species.
They preoceeded to confiscate the longline when the four fishing boats started to approach on the boats “ La Marisol”, “The Albatross” and “the Vigol 2”
The authorities confirmed that they were the object of abuse and intimidation.
With the help of loud speakers, the coastguards asked the fishing boats to back away. Disobeying the order, and getting even closer to the patrol boat, the coastguard had no choice but to fire two shots into the water.
“ I know they want to take fish home to sell and to feed their families, but we also have our job to do. I had to shoot because they were getting to close to our boat and being highly abusive” said one official.
The capitains have been named as (surnames only) Cruz, Chung and Cubero – but not one is registered as the owner of the boats.
“We are worried about the escalating aggresion with which fishermen are coming into the waters of the National Park” says MarViva
It has also been reported that Park rangers and marViva personnel have been threatened by machetes and Molotov Cocktails by fishing boats.
The police body is now researching whether they can charge the crew of the boats with piracy.