Catch and Release: A fisherman aboard the Don Christopher, a boat owned by Papagayo Seafood Company and docked in the Pacific port of Puntarenas, cleans a fish caught on innovative circle-hooks, whose design allows for the easy release of sea turtles and other bycatch on longlines. Fishing industry experts are discussing this and other sustainable fishing practices this week during the International Fishers' Forum in Puntarenas.

Ruta de los Conquistadores Mountain Bike Race Starts Today

Mountain bike fanatics take note: the Costa Rican race some say is among the toughest in the world, the Ruta de los Conquistadores, starts today and runs through Saturday.

Women's Club Meeting
Student scholarship recipients share their experiences, 10 a.m., Costa Rica Tennis Club, San José, La Sabana, 200 meters west of Universal. Info: 267-7042, www.wccr.org.

“Laberintos de Amor Derramado”
Performed by Nacional University (UNA) students, 7 p.m., Teatro Atahualpa del Cioppo, CIDEA, UNA, Heredia. Info: 277-3386.

By Dave Sherwood
Tico Times Staff | dsherwood@ticotimes.net

Scientists, government leaders and fishermen from 38 countries have gathered this week in the central Pacific port city of Puntarenas to discuss methods for reducing bycatch of sea turtles, marine birds and other animals in ocean longline fisheries.

The Fourth Annual International Fishers' Forum began Monday at the Hotel Fiesta in Puntarenas, overlooking the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica's most important fishing region. The four-day event includes dozens of panel discussions, presentations and a tour of the gulf.

During the opening ceremony Monday, Jim Leape, president of the World Wildlife Fund, which helped sponsor the event, said the world is in a “state of crisis” with regards to ocean fisheries.

“If we don't move quickly and decisively, we could see our fisheries collapse,” he said. “At current rates, we will exhaust our commercial fisheries by the middle of this century.”

Leape said reducing bycatch of sea turtles and other marine species in longline fisheries is an essential first step in solving the problem.

“We must launch a global initiative to change the way fishing is done. We can no longer fish in ways that are needlessly destructive, or that are not sustainable,” he said.

Carlos Villalobos, executive director of the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute (INCOPESCA), agreed, and called for unity among all the countries present to combat the problem.

“We're in a historic position to reduce our impact on the oceans and guarantee the sustainable future of our resources. Costa Rica is proud to be a part of this movement,” he said.

An operation to separate Costa Rican conjoined twins yesterday in California was deemed successful by doctors, according to a press release from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, where the procedure took place. But more complicated surgery remains ahead.

The twins, Yurelia and Fiorella Rocha Arias, were joined at the abdomen and chest. The two-year-old girls shared a liver and part of their heart.

Later this week, a cardiothoracic surgeon will operate on Yurelia's heart, which suffers from a debilitating condition.

The girls' procedure has drawn attention from the Costa Rican media as newspapers and TV news channels have followed their progress. They are the first conjoined twins in the country to be separated, reported the daily La Nación.

Moreover, one of the doctors on the team, Carlos Esquivel, is Costa Rican.

Mending Kids International, a California-based organization, covered the cost of both parents accompanying the girls.

The lead surgeon on the team, Gary Hartman, had estimated the girls' chance of survival after the first surgery to be 50%.

“The separation is the culmination of months of planning by several multidisciplinary teams,” Hartman said in a statement. “It was a very risky and complicated surgery, and the outcome is still unknown. The girls face many more hurdles in their path to recovery.”

-Tico Times

Mountain bike fanatics take note: the Costa Rican race some say is among the toughest in the world, the Ruta de los Conquistadores, starts today and runs through Saturday.

The race course spans from coast to coast, starting in the central Pacific beach town of Jacó and ending in the Caribbean port of Limón. The route has been modified this year to make it more difficult and adhere more closely to the route taken across Costa Rica by Spanish settlers, hence the name.

The race has traditionally been broken into three segments: from Jacó to Ciudad Colón, southwest of San José; from Tres Ríos, east of San José, to the Caribbean slope town of Turrialba; and from Turrialba to Limón.

This year's course has been changed to include the stretch between Ciudad Colón and Tres Ríos that was previously omitted. This new segment runs from Ciudad Colón through the nearby towns of Alto de Quitirrisí, Mora, Acosta, San Ignacio, Aserrí, Guatuso and Quebradilla de Cartago to end in Tres Ríos for a total of 78 kilometers and a 3,000 meter accumulated incline, the statement said.

The entire Ruta de los Conquistadores course measures 350 kilometers and a 12,000 meter climb.

In its 15 th year, the race was started by Tico cyclist Román Urbina.

“I wanted to organize an expedition to retrace the route of the Spanish conquerors in Costa Rica from 1540 to 1560. Who would have imagined that idea would turn into what many call the hardest race on the planet?” Urbina said in a statement from the race's organizers.

Among promising contenders this year are Ticos Federico Ramírez, Deiber Esquivel, Paolo Montoya and Manuel Prado as well as Thomas Dietsch, from France, and Andreas Hestler, from Canada.

Women top contenders include Costa Rican Alejandra Carvajal and Susan Haywood and Louise Kobin, both from the United States.