A controversial tuna farm near the mouth of the Golfo Dulce, in the southern Pacific region, has been put on hold by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV), pending the outcome of further studies to determine the environmental impact of the project in the region's delicate ecosystem.
The order resulted from a lawsuit presented by The Marine Turtle Restoration Program (PRETOMA) and the Punta Banco Association, requesting an injunction against the National Technical Secretariat of the Environment Ministry (SETENA) and the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute (INCOPESCA), according to a statement from PRETOMA.
The two government agencies had granted permits for the project to Granjas Atuneras de Golfito, S.A., a Costa Rican company with Spanish and Venezuelan capital, in June of last year, based on an environmental-impact study which has since been questioned by environmental groups (TT, June 29, 2006).
The point in question is the direction that waste – including excrement from hundreds of tuna concentrated into floating cages in a relatively small area – will travel from the farm.
Environmentalists charge that the company's own environmental-impact statement raises similar questions, stating that currents could potentially disseminate waste inside the gulf, which is a valuable natural area and a critical breeding and feeding ground for sea turtles, whales, dolphins and a wide range of fish species. The company's representatives, meanwhile, have sworn under oath that no such issue exists.
According to the Sala IV, this discrepancy must be resolved in order to “guarantee beforehand, with reasonable certainty, that the metabolic waste resulting from the form will not cause environmental damage.”
The Tico Times left a message for Eduardo Velarde, the spokesman for Granjas Atuneras, yesterday but did not hear back from him by press time. |
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