Seafood sales in Costa Rica have dropped 50 percent in the wake of a string of more than 100 illnesses linked to the restaurant La Princesa Marina in Moravia, a northeastern San José suburb.

“(The ailment) was food poisoning,” said Health Minister María Luisa Avila. “(It is) most likely E. coli, caused by poor management during the process of cleaning and preparing the food.”

The W ater and Sewage Institute (AyA) was commissioned to test the well water that the restaurant had been using.

What it found was not pretty.

“The water was contaminated with fecal matter,” Darner Mora, director of the AyA's water laboratory, told The Tico Times. “But I don't know if that caused the contamination.”

The restaurant was shut down for myriad health code violations and can only reopen once it has submitted a satisfactory action plan to the Health Ministry, Avila said.

The government insists that it is safe to eat seafood and that the public is simply overreacting to the news.

“It is entirely safe to eat seafood,” Avila said. “The problem was not with the shellfish or the fish, it was the poor technique and scant hygiene used in the preparation. The people can buy shellfish, provided it is fresh, and prepare it in their homes or eat it in restaurants that comply with the Health Ministry's standards.”

Many fishermen and restaurant owners around the country are concerned because they cannot sell the goods that provide them with their daily bread. Others wonder if the sales drop isn't the result of other factors.

“I think it's because the (food and gas) prices went up,” said Han Hyung, owner of the posh San José sushi restaurant Little Seoul. “Not because of the seafood scandal.”